To the editor:
Last Friday’s paper announcing the dedication of a new monument to be unveiled at Saturday’s Memorial Day Service at Richmond County’s Veterans Memorial Park contains several erroneous points. The iconic image described by Mr. Evans is the photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal on top of Mt. Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945, the fourth day into the Marines’ battle for the island of Iwo Jima. Mr. Toler does the participants a disservice by stating that there were four men involved. In actuality, there were six. Until last year history revealed that five were Marines, namely Sgt. Michael Strank, Cpl. Harlon Block, Pfcs. Franklin Sousley, Rene Gagnon and Ira Hayes, while the sixth was Navy Pharmacist Mate 2nd Class John Bradley.
There were tow flags raised that day. The first carried up the mountain by a platoon of Company E of the 28th Marines (Regiment) was raised with little fanfare. Several Marine photographers took photographs of the event, none of which were considered eventful. After the flag flew for a while, it was decided that it was too small to be seen clearly by the two divisions fighting on the plain below the mountain. A larger flag was obtained from a Navy tank-landing ship unloading across the beach at the base of the mountain and this flag was raised to replace the smaller one.
At the time, this action held no significance. In fact, Mr. Rosenthal wasn’t even paying attention to the action. His camera was on the ground and we was looking elsewhere. As th flag moved upward, it caught his eye, he grabbed his camera and he shot several —what he called — “snap-shots.” The picture was totally un-posed. It wasn’t until several days later, — on Guam, where the film was processed — that the photograph began to gain fame. Rosenthal was completely surprised.
Then came the question of who was in the picture. Since Strank, Block and Sousley had been killed in action after the flag raising, some memories faded. Bradley was identified as being the sixth man, but some disagreed. The war, and then history, moved on and the disagreement was never resolved until last year. The question of Bradley was raised again. A board of experts examined all the evidence available and determined that a mistake had been made.
On June23, 2016 the Commandant of the Marine Corps announced that Bradley, while in the photographs of the first raising, was not in Rosenthal’s photograph. The sixth man was positively identified as Pfc. Harold Shultz. He died May 16, 1995 at the age of 69. He remained publicly closed-mouth throughout his life about his participation in the flag raising.
Arthur B. Thompson Jr.,
Retired Major, USMC
Rockingham