Existing comment:
70,000 Marines Helped Raise That Flag on Iwo Jima
"... to Marines it's not about the individuals and never has been... what they did together and what they represent remains most important. That doesn't change."
-- General Robert B. Neller
USMC Commandant, 2016
If you have only seen the famous photo that inspired this statue, you might get the impression that just six Marines got the whole job done. But there were several photographers at work that day -- and many other photos made.
Here you can see a part of the actual Marine combat patrol that took the Stars and Stripes up Mount Suribachi, past snipers concealed in the sides of that volcano. Some of these faces are here in the war memorial statue.
What you can't see is the greatest armada of 500 ships and swarms of warplanes that made it possible to put three Marine divisions and an Army regiment ashore -- more than 110,000 sailors, airmen, soldiers, and Marines.
Many of the faces in this combat patrol photo would die on Iwo in the bitter fighting in the weeks to come. The sacrifices made to win Iwo Jima were greater than any other battle in Marine Corps history. |