Flags Of Our Fathers

Flags Of Our Fathers: This is the title of a Clint Eastwood movie that opened on October 20, 2006 about the life stories of the six men who raised the American Flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima, a turning point in WWll. The original black & white photograph was taken on February 23, 1945, the fifth day of that horrific, 36-day battle by Joe Rosenthal, a 33-year old Associated Press photographer.

The image of five battle-weary Marines and a Navy corpsman struggling to raise our flag atop Mount Suribachi became an instant classic and is one of the most famous photographs taken during the war. When the smoke finally cleared 6,621 Americans were dead, 19,217 were wounded and all but 1,083 of the 22,000 Japanese defenders were killed before the island was considered secure. It was of that battle – one of the most celebrated and bloody in Marine Corps history – that Admiral Chester Nimitz, CIC of the Pacific Fleet, said: "Among the Americans who served on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue."

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