Happy Birthday Marines!!!

I hope you all have a great time where ever you are, you deserve a little fun. This year I wanted to talk about the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi. I found some incredible gems on the internet and I wanted to share them with you, my fellow brothers and sisters on this momentous of days.

As we all know, there were two flag-raising on top of Mt. Suribachi, with the first one taking place a 10:20 on February 23, 1945. This flag was affixed to a Japanese iron water pipe found at the top of the mountain. First Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier, executive officer of Easy Company, assisted by Platoon Sergeant Ernest Thomas and Sergeant Oliver Hansen (the platoon guide) raised this flag. Photos of this flag raising were taken by Staff Sergeant Louis R. Lowery of Leatherneck magazine, and never really made much fanfare.

The second raising on Mt. Suribachi is the one that everyone knows, and that one took place on February 23, 1945. The photograph, taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press, captured this now-famous scene. The photo captured Cpl Harlon Block, PFC Harold Kellier, PFC Franklin Sousley, Sgt Michael Strank, Pfc Harold Schultz, and PFC Ira Hayes raising a larger flag on top of Mt Suribachi.

Today, I want to share some photos of the flag raising that you may have never seen before.

This is the most famous of the flag-raising photos. A very high-resolution copy of this image is available by clicking on the below image.