We honor the battles, but have forgotten the men behind the battles and their sacrifices. We recapped the battle of Iwo Jima. Now let us see the overview of the famous ‘Flag-Raising’ and its place in history.
Rosenthal took the famous photograph of five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising the flag on Iwo Jima. The flag raisers were originally listed as: Cpl. Harlon Block, Navy Pharmacist’s Mate John Bradley, Cpl. Rene Gagnon, PFC Franklin Sousley, Sgt. Michael Strank, and Cpl. Ira Hayes. You will soon see why history becomes a force of its own and the written word is not always accurate.
On February 23, a combat patrol was ordered to climb, seize, and occupy the top of Mount Suribachi and raise the battalion’s flag to signal it was secure. A 40-man patrol was organized. At 8:30 a.m., the patrol started to climb the east slope of Suribachi which included Navy Pharmacist’s Mate John Bradley.
Less than an hour later, after receiving occasional Japanese sniper fire, the patrol reached the rim of the volcano. After a brief firefight, they captured the summit. They attached the flag to a Japanese steel pipe that they found and took the flagstaff to the highest place on the crater.
At about 10:30 a.m., Lieutenant Schrier, Platoon Sergeant Ernest Thomas, Sergeant Henry Hansen, and Corporal Charles Lindberg raised the flag. “Seeing the raising of the national colors immediately caused loud cheering from the Marines, sailors, and Coast Guardsmen on the beach below and from the men on the ships docked at the beach.” A short time later, as the high winds on top caused the flagstaff to move sideways, Bradley helped make the flagstaff stay in a vertical position.
The men at and around the flagstaff were photographed several times by Staff Sgt. Louis R. Lowery, a photographer with Leatherneck magazine who accompanied the patrol up the mountain. Platoon Sergeant Thomas was killed on Iwo Jima on March 3 and Sgt. Hansen was killed on March 1.
Since the first flag flown over Mount Suribachi was regarded as too small to be seen by the thousands of Marines fighting on the other side of Iwo Jima, it was decided that a larger flag should be flown on the mountain. Marine Sergeant Michael Strank was to ascend Mount Suribachi with three Marines from his squad and raise the replacement flag. He ordered Corporal Harlon Block, Private First-Class Ira Hayes, and Private First-Class Franklin Sousley to go with him up Suribachi. Private First-Class Rene Gagnon the company’s runner was ordered to take the replacement flag up the mountain and return the first flying on top back down to the battalion adjutant.
Once all five Marines were on top, a Japanese steel pipe was found by Hayes and Sousley who carried the pipe to Strank and Block near the first flag. The second flag was attached to the pipe and, as Strank and his three Marines were about to raise the flagstaff, he yelled out to two nearby Marines from Lieutenant Schrier’s patrol to help them raise it. At approximately 1 p.m., Schrier ordered the raising of the second flag and the lowering of the original flag. The second flag was raised by Strank, Block, Hayes, Sousley, Private First-Class Harold Schultz, and Private First-Class Harold Keller.
Joe Rosenthal’s historical black and white photograph of the second flag-raising on February 23, 1945 appeared in Sunday newspapers on February 25. This flag-raising was also filmed in color by Marine sergeant Bill Genaust (killed in action in March) and was used in newsreels.
On March 1, Sergeant Strank and Corporal Block were killed. March 12, Bradley and three Marines received shrapnel wounds from an enemy mortar round explosion. Bradley was wounded in the legs and feet and was evacuated from the combat zone to the battalion aid station. On March 21, Private First Class Sousley was killed. March 26, the battle of Iwo Jima was officially over.
Three of these men, Strank, Sousley, and Block, were killed before the battle for Iwo Jima was over. So, what of the other 3 that were listed?
John Henry “Jack” “Doc” Bradley (July 10, 1923 – January 11, 1994) was a United States Navy Hospital corpsman who was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism while serving with the Marines during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. During the battle, he was a member of the patrol that captured the top of Mount Suribachi.
Bradley was generally known as being one of the men who raised the second U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945. On June 23, 2016, the Marine Corps announced publicly (after an investigation) that Bradley was not in the photograph. The man long thought to have been Bradley was identified as Private First Class Franklin Sousley, who had previously been thought to be in another position in the photograph, and the man who had been originally identified as Sousley was identified as Private First Class Harold Schultz. Bradley is one of three men who were originally identified incorrectly as flag-raisers in the photograph (the others being Hank Hansen and Rene Gagnon).
The first flag raised over Mount Suribachi at the south end of Iwo Jima was deemed too small. Although there were photographs taken of the first flag flying on Mount Suribachi after it was raised that include Bradley holding the flagstaff, there is no photograph of the first flag-raising. The second flag-raising photograph became famous and was widely reproduced. Bradley was photographed near the second flag.
In March 1945, President Roosevelt ordered that the flag raisers in Joe Rosenthal’s photograph be sent to Washington, D.C., to appear as a public morale factor. We follow the flag raisers in the future. Their stories humble.