Loki Loc: Georgia

For all you Marines out there in OPP land....

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-flag-raised-on-iwo-jima?

1945
U.S. flag raised on Iwo Jima
During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment of the 5th Division take the crest of Mount Suribachi, the island’s highest peak and most strategic position, and raise the U.S. flag. Marine photographer Louis Lowery was with them and recorded the event. American soldiers fighting for control of Suribachi’s slopes cheered the raising of the flag, and several hours later more Marines headed up to the crest with a larger flag. Joe Rosenthal, a photographer with the Associated Press, met them along the way and recorded the raising of the second flag along with a Marine still photographer and a motion-picture cameraman.

Rosenthal took three photographs atop Suribachi. The first, which showed five Marines and one Navy corpsman struggling to hoist the heavy flag pole, became the most reproduced photograph in history and won him a Pulitzer Prize. The accompanying motion-picture footage attests to the fact that the picture was not posed. Of the other two photos, the second was similar to the first but less affecting, and the third was a group picture of 18 soldiers smiling and waving for the camera. Many of these men, including three of the six soldiers seen raising the flag in the famous Rosenthal photo, were killed before the conclusion of the Battle for Iwo Jima in late March.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Thank you, Loki. A significant & memorable moment for the Marine Corps.

A friend/customer of my son in the Sacramento area of Northern California gifted (through him) to me a small crystal urn of Iwo Jima beach sand that came from the man's older brother's collection after his participation that battle. It is one of my most treasured military momentos.

Loki Loc: Georgia

Our family veterinarian was a veteran of Iwo Jima. He said he was one of 6 Marines in his platoon that was not killed or wounded.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

"Was?" Has the man passed, Loki? If not, I would sure love to meet him when I get through your part of the woods again.

Loki Loc: Georgia

Several years ago. He was ninety something. He was in his early twenties when he enlisted.

Carol Kelly

So tragic. But they had a few moments of glory and will never be forgotten. May God Bless their souls.

pafret Loc: Northeast

In 1992 I had the honor of meeting and working with Maurice Chartoff. He was a Survivor of the Philipines Bataan Death March, and is listed on the roster of The Signal Company. Maurice was in his seventies at the time, an intensely private man, who acknowledged his participation in the march but didn’t like to elaborate.

“After the April 9, 1942, U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II roughly 10,000 Americans and 65,000 Philipinos were forced to march some 65 miles from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando. The men were divided into groups of approximately 100, and what became known as the Bataan Death March typically took each group around five days to complete. The exact figures are unknown, but it is believed that thousands of troops died because of the brutality of their captors, who starved and beat the marchers, and bayoneted those too weak to walk. Survivors were taken by rail from San Fernando to prisoner-of-war camps, where thousands more died from disease, mistreatment and starvation.”

“After the war, an American military tribunal tried Lieutenant General Homma Masaharu, commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines. He was held responsible for the death march, a war crime, and was executed by firing squad on April 3, 1946.”