The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: PegLeg45 on February 09, 2013, 01:46:33 PM
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No, not the big 'un....... but a smaller original version. ;)
http://news.yahoo.com/original-iwo-jima-monument-coming-nyc-auction-080325848.html
A long-forgotten piece of America's military history is going up for sale.
The original smaller statue of the iconic raising of the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima in 1945 is expected to fetch up to $1.8 million later this month at a New York auction dedicated to World War II artifacts.
That such a statue even exists is news to all but the most ardent history buffs.
Most Americans are familiar with the 32-foot-tall Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va. Felix de Weldon's 1954 bronze depicts five Marines and a Navy Corpsman raising the flag on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi as Allied forces struggled to capture the Japanese-held island.
Less well-known is the 12 1/2-foot-tall statue created soon after the event.
De Weldon, a young sculptor serving as an artist in the Navy, became instantly transfixed by an Associated Press image of the Feb. 23, 1945, flag planting, which would earn photographer Joe Rosenthal a Pulitzer Prize and resonate around the world.
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There is a life size version on the Parade deck at Parris Island.
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It needs to find a home at the WWII Museum in New Orleans.