WW II in HD

[tombogan03884]

 Bradley, Hayes, and Gagnon, The 3 members of the Flag raising to survive Iwo Jima, were the only 3 people to be commemorated on a US postage stamp while they were still alive.

[Timothy]

Tom, were they the original flag men or the "Staged" shot that came afterward which became so famous and also became the monument pose?

[tombogan03884]

 It wasn't exactly "staged". the original flag was real small, so some one sent up a larger one to replace it so the Marines below could see it, but yes they were from the second raising that Joe Rosanthal caught. The first party were advancing to clear Japanese troops off the Mountain top and had no photographers around. When they got to the top there were also only 6 members of that party, 3 of who later died in combat on the Island.

[Timothy]

I thought some general wanted the original flag so they brought up another.  It's been years since I've read up on it, maybe it's time to revisit the history.

Ira Hayes carried guilt for the rest of his life, a real shame.....wasn't one of them a Navy corpman as well?

[PegLeg45]

Interesting read:

The first flag, measuring 54x28 inches, was obtained from attack transport USS Missoula (APA-211), and raised on a 20-foot section of pipe at 10:20 a.m. Several hours later, an 8-foot-long battle ensign, obtained from tank landing ship LST-779, was raised, resulting in Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal's famous photograph of the flag raising. This photograph inspired the bronze monument to the Marine Corps by Felix de Welden located near Arlington National Cemetery.


For an interview with one of the Corpsmen:  http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq87-3l.htm

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

Bradley, The Corpsman, was the inspiration for his son James book "Flags of Our Fathers", What led James to research the subject was finding his Fathers medals and clippings after his death. The Family knew that He had done "Something" in the war, but he would never talk about it.
Bradley was really the only one of the survivors who managed to readjust to civilian life.
 Hayes had long had a drinking problem but he never recovered from the loss of so many friends on that Island. He enlisted a happy go lucky kid and returned as a sullen drunk with a chip on his shoulder who finally found peace in a drunken brawl on the Reservation.
 Rene Gagnon, remained a factory worker in Manchester, his wife kept trying to milk it for money but he lacked the personality and ambition to be anything but what he was He died a few years ago in Wolfeboro where he was working as a school Janitor. His Dress Blues medals, and  citations were donated to the Write Museum in Wolfeboro where they are on display.

[bulldog75]

Execellent series. Shows what the greatest generation was made of. My dad told me about korea and the chinese and koreans charging their positions in waves. He said they would literally melt the barrel of the m2 .50 then he would pick up his m1 and go to work on them.  LDO U.S. Army 25 I.D.  RIP Jan. 25 2008.

[tombogan03884]

Execellent series. Shows what the greatest generation was made of. My dad told me about korea and the chinese and koreans charging their positions in waves. He said they would literally melt the barrel of the m2 .50 then he would pick up his m1 and go to work on them.  LDO U.S. Army 25 I.D.  RIP Jan. 25 2008.

My Dad tells about sending an ammo rifle man to push over the piles of Chinese bodies that were blocking the field of fire when they assaulted the Out posts, and the mortars.
Machine gun section Leader, Sgt. D2/1 1st MarDiv, USMC.

Bulldog, Your Dad ever mention Sniping with the 50 cal. My Dad was normally assigned to water Cooled .30's but for a while had one of the .50's that had a dovetailed block mounted on the right of the receiver for mounting a scope. He has some photo's of it. Shot a Chinaman at 1800 yards with it.

[bulldog75]

He never really said alot about what happened. We would just get a few comments here and there. He did talk about watching a recoiless rifle team shoot at some chinese that were stockpiling ammo in a bunker and he said it looked like the 4th of July.