Flags Of Our Fathers
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS: This is the title of the new 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 photograher.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 photograhs 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."
"THE RAISING OF THAT FLAG ON SURIBACHI MEANS A MARINE CORPS FOR THE NEXT 500 YEARS."
Those words, by then Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal would echo throughout the Marine Corps community for years after the war was finally over - only to be forgotten first by a misguided president who attempted to disband the Corps and then just a historically short time later on the political battle field of Vietnam. The Joe Rosenthal image of those WW ll Marines is still regarded as the symbol of the Marine Corps fighting spirit. What, might you ask, would be the most famous image of the "war" in Vietnam? Nothing less than a dramatic photo of a South Korean soldier executing a Vietnamese civilian, capturing perfectly the exact moment of the bullets' impact for the cover of LIFE. I draw that comparison for two reasons: First, to point out how beloved our Marines are when the cause is just and the country is behind them. And second, to remind everyone that it wasn't the Marine Corps that changed, it was the country. But I digress, more on that subject later.
A MARINES' MARINE
Jack Rice (my mothers brother) was a talented feature writer for the St. Louis Post Dispatch for 30+ years and did most of his writing in the early sixties to late seventies. He wrote all kinds of wonderful stories mostly from the human interest side. He was also a former Marine Staff Sergeant who served overseas in WW ll and the man that inspired me to join the Marines in 1968. He looked after me more like a son than a nephew. He introduced me to the arts and culture of St Louis and I even accompanied him (behind the scenes) on famous interviews like the one he did with Carol Channing while she was appearing in St. Louis during the long run of HELLO DOLLY. Jack died tragically at the tender age of 60 and I still miss him terribly. After I got out of the Corps we would sit up for hours sipping his favorite bourdon and trading "war" stories. He was very disappointed by the Vietnam situation but managed to keep his opinions to a select few. Regardless, he would never put up with a bad word about his Marine Corps. The picture you see at the top of the post was selected by me from his personal effects with the permission of my mother and timed to appear with the debut of the movie, FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and the 230th birthday celebration of the Corps. I thought it an appropriate way to honor his memory.
A TASTE OF THE OLD CORPS
Jack had a life-long love affair with the Corps and over the years did a number of features on it for his weekly column in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. One of my favorites was a two-part series that appeared in the March 12th and 13th, 1979 issues of that newspaper where he started with, MARINES USE POLISHED APPROACH followed the next day by BOOT CAMP LEAVES ITS MARK. Accompanying the first article was a very large photo of a Marine Corps recruiting poster (circa 1916) that shows "Soldiers of the Sea" hitting the beach, inviting the viewer to apply to the Marine Corps Recruiting Station at 122 North 7th St, St. Louis, Missouri. "Your Country Needs You! (That same poster hangs on the wall in my home where his campaign hat, letters and articles and his other Marine Corps memorabilia reside). This feature was written mainly about the Marine Corps Recruiting Station in St. Louis but in it he could not resist a jab at a President he admired - Harry Truman - the man who for whatever reason attempted to disband the Marines after WW ll "with the gray sands barely settled on Iwo Jima", Jack wrote. There are many gems in this piece and the article will be reproduced in it's entirety in a future post for our regular feature, MY FAVORITE MARINE.
The second feature had pictures of actual recruit training (provided by the kind folks at MCRD, Parris Island) and a picture of Jack Webb, famous for the TV show DRAGNET, all decked out in his Marine uniform for the movie, THE DI. This was Jacks' favorite Marine movie and thank God he never lived to see FULL METAL JACKET! Jack set the tone for this second article in the opening paragraph; "The best-loved symbol of the United States Marine Corps is the Drill Instructor. The character-molding, father-substitiute, confessor-at-large DI. Every movie maker in hollywood knows that. Jack Webb was the best Hollywood DI of the lot. Webb wore the campaign hat, the DI's crown of power at the most authoritative forward tilt yet filmed. John Wayne did not do it better. Neither came close to the real thing, of course, they were only acting". Jack had his Jack Webb and I've got R. Lee Ermey, in my mind the best of my generation of actors playing Marine roles. Maybe he did it so well because he was one of us. Semper Fi Gunny!
THE MAN BEHIND THE PICTURE
This is really a tribute to two men; one that I knew and loved and who was an inspiration to me, my uncle, Jack Rice. Sadly, I never really realized the positive influence he had on me until he was gone. I was too young to understand that he was a great friend as well as mentor. The other man is one I never had the opportunity to meet - Joe Rosenthal - the man who won the Pulitzer Prize and international fame for his soul-stirring picture of the WW ll flag-raising on Iwo Jima and who died recently at age 94. I don't know about these days but back then the St Louis Post Dispatch was owned by the Pulitzer family and it's interesting to note that this picture appeared in the March 11, 1945 issue of that newspaper where Jacks' Dad discovered it and clipped it out to save.
NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE
Joe Rosenthal took his famous photograph in 1945 and more than a half-century later, his picture retains it's emotional power as a work of art as well as a patriotic symbol. It is the most re-produced picture of all time and has been found on postage stamps, calendars, newspapers, magazines and countless posters. It was used as an inspirational icon for a War Bond drive in 1945 that raised $26.3 billion! The flag raising picture was the model for the enormous bronze Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington, VA, which stands 110 feet tall from base to flag top and weighs more than 100 tons! There were some interesting things on the other side of the PD picture as well (see black and white image) 
AN HONORARY MARINE
With the movie coming out there will be a lot of buzz about the event that the picture portrays. The lives of these men will finally get their fifteen minutes of fame via the American movie-going public. It's our job to make sure that this event and these men are not forgotten once the movie goes to DVD. Joe Rosenthal was the fearless photographer who went into battle side by side with Marines who were dying all around him. He hit the beaches with the first wave of Marines landing under intense fire and later recalled, "The situation was impossible, no man who survived the beach can tell you how he did it. It was like walkiing through rain and not getting wet". He kept a framed certificate declaring him an honorary Marine, which he said was his proudest possession.
Joe was a modest and unassuming man, he made very little money from the sale of the picture and was gratified to get what he did. (some estimates are less than $10,000) In a 1995 interview he stated that, "every once in a while someone teases me that I could have been rich. But I'm alive. A lot of the men who were there are not. And a lot of them were badly wounded. I was not. And so I don't have the feeling someone owes me for this." Can you imagine someone saying this nowadays?!
After the war, Rosenthal returned to work for the Associated Press as a heroic celebrity, a role that embarrassed him. He often said that the real heroes were the young men he called "my Marines," who fought and died on Iwo Jima, and that he was just a newsman with a camera. "I took the picture," he said. "The Marines took Iwo Jima."
LETS TALK ABOUT THE MOVIE
Lets hear it Marines! What did you think about the movie? Any Iwo Jima survivors left out there who would like to comment?
Joe Rosenthal quotes attributed to the San Francisco Chronicle
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