During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the 3rd
Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment of the 5th
Division take the crest of Mount Suribachi, the island's highest
peak and most strategic position, and raise the U.S. flag.
Marine photographer Louis Lowery was with them and recorded the
event. American soldiers fighting for control of Suribachi's
slopes cheered the raising of the flag, and several hours later
more Marines headed up to the crest with a larger flag. Joe
Rosenthal, a photographer with the Associated Press, met them
along the way and recorded the raising of the second flag along
with a Marine still photographer and a motion-picture cameraman.
Rosenthal took three photographs atop Suribachi. The first,
which showed five Marines and one Navy corpsman struggling to
hoist the heavy flag pole, became the most reproduced photograph
in history and won him a Pulitzer Prize. The accompanying
motion-picture footage attests to the fact that the picture was
not posed. Of the other tw