It was 68 years ago today that Marines of the 28th Marine Regiment raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima. The famous photo is of the raising of a second, larger flag and was taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. The first flag raising was photographed by Sgt. Louis R. Lowery. The second flag-raising featured a much larger flag and a different group of Marines and a Navy corpsman. Sgt. Lowery's film was sent for processing via standard military channels and took a month to be made public. Rosenthal's was sent by seaplane to Guam and wired to the States via the AP, where it was quickly widely published on its way to winning Rosenthal a Pulitzer Prize.
Far from being the end of the fight for the island, the battle raged for 31 more days and stands as one of the toughest, most vicious fights in Marine Corps history. Several of the men in Rosenthal's photo did not survive the battle.
Photo from The Marine Times.
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