It was 67 years ago today that the iconic photo was forever etched into our collective cultural mind and came to represent everything we accomplished in the Second World War, and our struggle to free the world from militaristic dictatorships. It was on Iwo Jima, on February 23, 1945, four days after the battle for the small island began and more than month before the battle would end. US forces suffered more than 26,000 casualties, more than 6,000 killed, while Japanese defenders lost over 20,000 killed and only a thousand were captured alive. Two last Japanese soldiers surrendered after hiding out on the island in January 1951.<\/p>\n

Joe Rosenthal photographed six Marines: Ira Hayes, Mike Strank, Rene Gagnon, Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, and U.S. Navy corpsman John Bradley raising the U.S. flag. Within days, three of the Marines raising the flag were killed: Strank, Block and Sousley. <\/p>\n

Thanks to Sparky for reminding us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"