Joe Rosenthal, 1911-2006



Joe Rosenthal, the man who took what may very well be the most famous photograph ever (the Iwo Jima flag-raising pictured above), has died. He was 94.

After 30,000 Marines landed there on Feb. 19, 1945, it took four days for a contingent to scale Mount Suribachi, the highest point. More than 6,800 U.S. servicemen died in the five-week battle for the island, and the 21,000-man Japanese defense force was virtually wiped out.

Rosenthal's shutter captured the second raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi after the Marines decided the first flag was too small. Rosenthal later wrote that he almost didn't climb the summit when he learned a flag already had been raised.

"What I see behind the photo is what it took to get up to those heights -- the kind of devotion to their country that those young men had, and the sacrifices they made," he said. "I take some gratification in being a little part of what the U.S. stands for."

Compare that approach to proof of recent wartime "journalism" shenanigans and Rosenthal's legacy even larger. Rosenthal himself faced charges that he staged the photo. But the charge resulted when he confused the flag-raising photo for another he had taken.

What is often lost when people see this photo is what happened to the six men who appear in it. (Some have claimed only five Marines and sailors are shown, but this illustration proves the case for six.)

Three of the men -- Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block and Michael Strank -- didn't leave the island alive. Block and Strank were killed in action within a week; Sousley died less than a month after the photograph was taken. The remaining three -- John Bradley, Rene Gagnon and Ira Hayes -- did survive, but were haunted by the war and celebrity. Hayes, subject of the song "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," died in 1955, shortly after his 32nd birthday. Gagnon, by one account, became bitter that his celebrity faded. He died in 1979. John Bradley rarely spoke of his wartime exploits. He died in 1994.

May they all rest in peace.

The copyright of the above photograph is held by Joe Rosenthal/Associated Press.