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A book.....

Slingblade61

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Aug 26, 2004
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History book.

I'm reading this most riveting story of the men in the picture and the story of the battle.
iwo jima 2.jpg
 
OP
Slingblade61

Slingblade61

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Aug 26, 2004
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Flags or our Fathers
by James Bradley

His father was one of the men on the flag.

The myths surrounding this, the most famous picture ever taken, are enourmous. This book lays them to rest.

The words. hero, heroism and heroic are all badly misused in today's culture of "Heroic" sports performance and athletics.

This book is about real heros.

edit;

a note on heroism....

Of the eighty-four Medals of Honor awarded to Marines during all of World War II, twenty-seven (just short of one third) were awarded for heroism during the thirty-six days of fighting on Iwo Jima.
 

Bravo

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Aug 27, 2004
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Isn't it true that the hill was captured well before this photo was taken and that this is a re-enactment/photo op?
 
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Slingblade61

Slingblade61

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No, it is not true.

Mt. Suribachi was taken on day 4 of a 36 day battle with the japanese.
The Navy Secretary, James Forrestal was onboard a ship observing the original flag raising and wanted the flag taken down so he could take it to Washington.

When 2nd Battalion commander Colonel Chandler Johnson heard this, he was enraged by this request and acted quickly to secure the flag as a souvenir for the battalion, whose men had put it up.

A runner was sent up the mountain with the replacement flag.

The runner, Rene Gagnon, and 4 other Marines plus one navy corpman (Bradley's father) secured the flag to a 100+ pound piece of drainage pipe and raised it without ceremony.

There were a few pool photographers who went up to shoot the second raising. This pic is unposed and was taken accidentally when the photographer, Joe Rosenthal, looked away and pushed the button on the camera.

To the Marines who were on Iwo, the whole thing was a non issue, a second raising, no one paid any attention to it, not even the men who did it. The three of the six who survived Iwo spent the rest of thier lives trying to forget the whole thing.

It was many weeks later that Rosenthal even knew about the picture. when asked about it he thought they were talking about a second photo around the flag that was posed......

read the book.
 

Kilted Arab

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Apr 30, 2005
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It's a cracking photo, of that there's no doubt. And although I've never been in the military, nost of my family have (Father was a Royal Marine in WW2 and brother spent time in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and elsewhere - so I appreciate military tales of heroism. Plus, being a tad to the right of centre, I'm fully behind our armed forces.

But...and maybe this should be a different thread...is this really the most famous photo of all time? Like Bravo, I was of the opinion it was a staged pic - and for that I apologise. Who defined this as the "most famous photo"? I'd lay good odds that only about 1 in 5 of the guys at my work have seen it before.

I'm quite into photography, so may start a thread on photos after thinking about it for a while.

Cheers for posting this, Sling.
 

Dave Ireland

I'm sizzlin tonite
Aug 31, 2004
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Slingblade61 said:
..... The three of the six who survived Iwo spent the rest of thier lives trying to forget the whole thing......

Just a quick trivia note, the 3 guys that survived, played cameo roles in the John Wayne film - Sands of Iwo Jima where they re-enacted the raising of the flag

I have a great interest in factual accounts of WW2, and in particular the war against the Japanese. TV here has in recent weeks being running a serialised account of the campaign, the pure babarity of the fighting can only be imagined. It's only in more recent times that Hollywood has attempted to capture this aspect - Band of Brothers as an example.

A friend of my grandfathers was a POW and worked on the Burma Railroad, when The Bridge of the River Kwai was released, it drew a lot of interest from people in the town for this man to recount his experiences - which he never did.

Just as you say Sling, he spent the rest of his life trying to forget about it ..
 

Kilted Arab

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Apr 30, 2005
1,202
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Dave Ireland said:
A friend of my grandfathers was a POW and worked on the Burma Railroad, when The Bridge of the River Kwai was released, it drew a lot of interest from people in the town for this man to recount his experiences - which he never did.

When I was a wean I used to deliver newspapers to a guy who was also a prisoner of the Japanese and worked on the Burma railroad. The sweetest old bloke you could find, always gave a good tip at Christmas! Small bloke, sprightly and always a smile for people.

The poor soul was killed by a bus in Edinburgh and it was only after his death that I - and most people - found out what he'd been through, when his obituary was published in the local paper. A few of the details came from my father and were confirmed by others prior to publication. I'd no idea my father had been a confidant, to a degree, and at the time I didn't understand. I'm not sure any of us can begin to comprehend what these guys went through. We should never stop trying, never forget - in my view.
 

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