AP Photo/Joe Rosenthal
On this day, 70 years ago, Joe Rosenthal took his iconic photo of the U.S. Marines of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division raising the American flag atop the 546 foot Mt Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima. There were 6 flag raisers on Suribachi, five Marines and one Navy corpsman: Mike Strank, Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon, and John Bradley. Strank, Block and Sousley would later die on Iwo Jima.
There would be many more weeks of fighting on Iwo Jima; the island would not be deemed secure until March 26.
Joe Rosenthal on the island of Iwo Jima. 7 March 1945 AP Photo/US Marine Corps
Rosenthal’s iconic photo would win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1945.
US Marines of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division atop Mt Suribachi AP Photo/Joe Rosenthal
Also on Suribachi at the flag raising were US Marine photographers Sgt Bill Genaust and Pfc. Bob Campbell. Genaust captured the event using his 16mm motion picture camera. Sgt. Genaust would be killed by small arms fire on March 4, 1945, along with another Marine. Their bodies were never recovered.
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