Iwo Jima remembered

namvet · Feb 19, 2014

19 feb 45 Marines storm ashore at Iwo Jima

Wizard From Oz · Feb 19, 2014

namvet said: ↑

19 feb 45 Marines storm ashore at Iwo Jima
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And a 100,000 human beings began a decent into hell for the next 5 weeks

waltky · May 4, 2016

Was John Bradley misidentified?...

Marines Investigating Claim about Men in Iwo Jima Photo
May 03, 2016 The Marine Corps says it has begun investigating whether it mistakenly identified one of the men shown raising the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima in one of the iconic images of World War II after two amateur history buffs began raising questions about the picture.

The Marines announced its inquiry more than a year after Eric Krelle, of Omaha, Nebraska, and Stephen Foley, of Wexford, Ireland, began raising doubts about the identity of one man. In November 2014, the Omaha World-Herald published an extensive story about their claims and Saturday was the first to report the Marines were looking into the matter. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal shot the photo on Feb. 23, 1945, on Mount Suribachi, amid an intense battle with the Japanese. Rosenthal didn't get the names of the men, but the photo immediately was celebrated in the U.S. and President Franklin Roosevelt told the military to identify the men. After some confusion, the Marines identified the men as John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, Harlon Block, Michael Strank and Franklin Sousley. All were Marines except Bradley, who was a Navy corpsman.

Block, Strank and Sousley were killed in fighting at Iwo Jima before the photo was distributed in the U.S. On Monday, the Marines issued a statement saying, "The Marine Corps is examining information provided by a private organization related (to) Joe Rosenthal's Associated Press photograph of the second flag raising on Iwo Jima. "Rosenthal's photo captured a single moment in the 36-day battle during which more than 6,500 US servicemen made the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation and it is representative of the more than 70,000 US Marines, Sailors, Soldiers and Coast Guardsmen that took part in the battle. We are humbled by the service and sacrifice of all who fought on Iwo Jima."

Iwo Jima, a tiny island 660 miles south of Tokyo, was the site of an intense 36-day battle that began Feb. 19, 1945, between about 70,000 Marines and 18,000 Japanese soldiers. Capturing Iwo Jima was deemed essential to the U.S. war effort because Japanese fighter planes were taking off from the island and intercepting American bomber planes. Hal Buell, a retired AP executive news photo editor, had long discussions with Rosenthal about the flag-raising picture and in 2006 wrote a book about the famous image. It's hard to understand the photo's power in 1945 to Americans, who were weary of the war and horrified by the incredible number of deaths by servicemen, especially in locations of Asia most had never heard of, Buell said. "People were just tired of the war, and all of a sudden out of nowhere came this picture that encapsulated everything," Buell said. "It showed that victory was ultimately possible."

Buell said after Rosenthal shot the photo, the flag-raisers quickly moved onto other tasks, and it was impossible for him to get their names. That task was left to the Marines after the picture prompted an overwhelming response and the government decided to use the image in an upcoming sale of war bonds to finance the continued fighting. Rosenthal died in 2006. The identification of the six servicemen has been accepted for decades, but the World-Herald reported that while recovering from an operation Foley had lots of time on his hands and began noticing possible discrepancies in the picture. He enlisted the help of Krelle, who maintains a website dedicated to the Marines' 5th Division. After examining the famous photo along with other pictures taken that day of the men, they concluded that the man identified as Bradley was actually Harold Henry Schultz, a private first class from Detroit. Schultz died in 1995.

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waltky · May 5, 2016

The first raising with the smaller flag wasn't photographed, mebbe he was part of that one...

Author Says He Now Thinks Father Wasn't Iwo Jima Flag-raiser
May 04, 2016 The author of a best-selling book about his father and other men who raised a U.S. flag at Iwo Jima during World War II said Tuesday he no longer believes his father was in an iconic photograph of the event.

James Bradley, who wrote the book "Flags of Our Fathers," said in a telephone interview that questions raised about the photo by two amateur historians, which have prompted a Marine Corps investigation, led him to think back on comments his father made about the 1945 flag-raising. Those comments by John Bradley, who died in 1994, now lead James Bradley to believe his father participated in an earlier flag-raising, but not the one captured in the famous picture. "My father raised a flag on Iwo Jima," Bradley told The Associated Press. "The Marines told him way after the fact, 'Here's a picture of you raising the flag.' He had a memory of him raising a flag, and the two events came together."

AP photographer Joe Rosenthal shot the photo on Feb. 23, 1945, on Mount Suribachi, only days into a bloody battle with the Japanese that would stretch on for weeks. The picture was displayed on front pages of newspapers across the U.S., later was used in a war bond sale and was depicted in the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. Since 1947, the Marines have identified the Iwo Jima flag-raisers as John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, Harlon Block, Michael Strank and Franklin Sousley. All were Marines except Bradley, who was a Navy corpsman.

On Monday, the Marine Corps announced it had begun investigating whether it mistakenly identified one of the men after history buffs Eric Krelle, of Omaha, Nebraska, and Stephen Foley, of Wexford, Ireland, began raising doubts about the matter. They argued that the man believed to be Bradley actually was Sousley, and that the person for decades thought to be Sousley was Harold Henry Schultz, who previously wasn't thought to have any connection to the flag-raising. All of those involved in the flag-raising have died, including three who were killed in later fighting at Iwo Jima.

Bradley, whose book was made into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood, said misidentifying the men who joined in the second flag-raising would be an easy mistake. "The key is, no one was keeping track," he said. "There was the fog of war, post-traumatic stress." Bradley said after reviewing his father's statements and photographs from that day on Mount Suribachi, he's confident his father wasn't in the famous picture, but it's impossible to be 100 percent certain. "I know what these guys look like. I've studied them for years," he said. "But I could be wrong."

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...thinks-father-wasnt-iwo-jima-flag-raiser.html
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waltky · May 11, 2016

Yes indeed, they all did their duty...

Commandant on Iwo Jima Flag-Raising Debate: 'They All Did Their Duty'
May 10, 2016 | As new questions arise about an iconic photograph depicting American Marines raising a flag atop Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi in 1945, the commandant of the Marine Corps said the heroism of the troops present that day remains unchanged.

Speaking at a Marine Corps Association awards dinner May 5, Gen. Robert Neller addressed the Corps' review of Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal's famous image of the Iwo Jima flag raising. Marine officials announced earlier in the week they were reviewing information provided by the Smithsonian Channel that suggested two of the men in the photograph were misidentified, and that one was actually not part of the flag-raising group. "We're in the processing of trying for the historical record to determine who really were those men," Neller said. "And I can tell you this: We're going to make our best effort to do that and we'll coordinate with everybody," Neller said. "But at the end of the day, I can tell you this: we know that all the people we believe were there, were on that hill. All. So they all did their duty."

Lieutenant General Robert B. Neller

Neller noted that the flag-raising caught on camera by Rosenthal was actually the second of the day, and the one that received the least fanfare at the time. At 10:20 the morning of Feb. 23, 1945, the commandant said, the Marines took a patrol up Mount Suribachi and raises the original flag, to great celebration. "Everybody stopped and yelled and screamed, and ships blew their horns," he said. The second, larger flag was raised about two-and-a-half hours later. Regardless of who was in the photograph, Neller said, the Marines whose names have been tied to the image were all part of the Iwo Jima assault -- "a 36-day fight where a Marine or sailor was killed or wounded, every two minutes, for 36 days. "At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter," he added. "We'll find out who was who and what, but ... they were all Marines doing their job. And they were trained and they fought hard."

The AP reported May 3 that the work of two amateur historians prompted the Marine Corps to launch its review of the identities of the six men in the famous photograph. The researchers, Eric Krelle and Stephen Foley, contend that the Marine identifies as Pfc. Franklin Sousley was actually Pfc. Harold Henry Schultz. Sousley, they say, was mistakenly identified as Navy corpsman John Bradley, which would mean that Bradley did not actually appear in the photo.

Iwo Jima flag raising

Bradley's son, James Bradley, told the AP he believes his father was part of an Iwo Jima flag raising, but no longer believes he was pictured in the famous photograph. Bradley is the author of the bestseller Flags of Our Fathers, published in 2000. "Our history is important to us, and even today, this iconic image still represents the fighting spirit of Marines and is a symbol of the tremendous accomplishments of our Corps," a Marine Corps spokesman, Maj. Christian Devine, said in a May 3 statement. "As such, with the information and research provided by the Smithsonian Channel, who used advanced digital technology to examine battle footage, the Marine Corps decided to review their photo-enhancements, film analysis, and findings," he said. "This review is still ongoing."

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...g-raising-debate-they-all-did-their-duty.html
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waltky · Jun 25, 2016

There were two photographs taken, possibly they were mixed-up...

The Incredible Story Behind the Iwo Jima Photo Discovery
Jun 25, 2016 | What does it take to set straight an iconic piece of American history? For retired Marine Lt. Col. Matt Morgan, it was years of research and dogged forensic analysis.

The Marine Corps made national headlines this week when officials announced that one of the men in perhaps the most iconic photograph of Marines in World War II had been misidentified for decades. A 1945 photograph by Associated Press journalist Joe Rosenthal of six Marines raising a flag on Mt. Suribachi -- an image that Navy Secretary James Forrestal famously said would ensure the Corps survival for another 500 years -- did not include Navy corpsman John Bradley, officials concluded. Instead, it pictured Pfc. Harold Schultz, a quiet mortarman who died in 1995 without ever setting the record straight. Morgan, who served in the infantry and as a public affairs officer during his career, told Military.com in a June 23 interview that his journey to find answers about the famous photograph began in 2005, when he was a student at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College at Quantico., Va.

Morgan said he received a call from a friend, retired Marine Sgt. Maj. James Dever, who had been working as a military adviser on Clint Eastwoods film, Flags of Our Fathers, based on the bestselling book of the same name by Bradleys son, James. He said, Ive got something interesting here. I dont think John Bradley is in this photo, Morgan said. I looked at it independently and very quickly came to the same conclusion. But who the misidentified Marine was remained unclear. Morgan knew that historians had placed Bradley at three different positions in the image through the decades, and had done the same with Cpl. Ira Hayes, another flag raiser. It turned out that many of the guys had been misidentified at different times, Morgan said.

Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal preserved this moment on Feb. 23, 1945, when six Marines raised the U.S. Flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima. The battle on the Japanese-held island claimed the lives of nearly 7,000 Marines.

Without a firm lead, Morgan let the issue rest for nearly a decade. As Marines, both Dever and I knew what we were suggesting was rather serious, he said. To bring everything forward, we needed to have our facts firm. In 2014, the two Marines found themselves working together as advisers on another Eastwood film, the Chris Kyle biopic American Sniper. Morgan said Eastwood tended to use the same crew members on his projects, and the topic of the controversial photo again came up among those who had worked on Flags of Our Fathers. Dever and Morgan agreed the subject would make an intriguing future documentary project. And then, in the fall of that year, their idea got a shot in the arm: two amateur historians, Eric Krelle and Stephen Foley, went public with a theory that the service member formerly identified as Bradley was, in fact, Schultz.

The conclusion was the result of hours of poring over grainy images from Feb. 23, 1945, the day of the famous flag-raising. Rosenthals photographs were augmented by those of combat photographer Louis Lowery, then a staff sergeant. One of the photos taken by Lowery of the raising of a smaller flag earlier in the day shows Schultz in the very corner of the shot, a strap hanging off the brim of his helmet. Other photos by Rosenthal taken after the famous flag-raising show a Marine with a mysterious shadow in front of his face and a rifle slung lower than the rest. That shadow was Schultzs hanging helmet strap, the historians concluded. Video evidence and that low-hanging rifle made them confident: the mystery man was Schultz.

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