US Marine Corps:
Shortly after the first flag-raising on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson, the Battalion commander, told Second Lieutenant Albert T. Tuttle, Assistant Operations Officer, 2d Battalion, 28th Marines, to go down to one of the ships on the beach and get a large battle flag - "large enough that the men at the other end of the island can see it. It will lift their spirits also." Lieutenant Tuttle went on board LST 779, beached near the base of the volcano and obtained a larger set of colors. Ironically, the flag from LST 779 which would soon fly over the first captured Japanese territory had been salvaged from Pearl Harbor, probably from some decommissioned destroyer or destroyer escort.
When Tuttle returned to the command post with the larger flag. Lieutenant Colonel Johnson directed him to give the flag to Private First Class Rene A. Gagnon, the Colonel's runner from Company E. Gagnon was headed up the hill with replacement batteries that Lieutenant Schrier had requested for his radio. As Gagnon was carrying this second and larger (96 by 56 inches) flag up the slopes of Suribachi, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal was just beginning his hard climb up the mountain. Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal Harlon H. Block, Private First Class Franklin R. Sousley and Private First Class Ira H. Hayes also accompanied this set of colors up Suribachi's slopes with Gagnon.
When the men arrived at the top, Lieutenant Schrier decided that the new flag should be raised as the original one was lowered. Sergeant Strank, Corporal Block, Private First Class Hayes and Private First Class Sousley fastened the larger colors to a second pipe and then tried to set the makeshift staff in the rugged ground. Since the four men appeared to be having difficulty in getting the pipe firmly planted, two onlookers, Private First Class Gagnon and Pharmacist's Mate Second Class John H. Bradley came to their aid.
All six were struggling to raise the flag when Rosenthal snapped a picture of the scene. According to Rosenthal, luck played an important part in the taking of his famous photograph. The Associated Press photographer arrived at the summit just as Lieutenant Schrier was preparing to take down the first flag. At first, Rosenthal hoped to photograph the lowering of the first flag together with the raising of the larger flag. When he discovered that he would not have time to line up both pictures, he decided to concentrate on the second flag raising. He backed off about 35 feet, only to discover that because of the sloping ground, he could not see what was happening. He piled up some loose stones, mounted them and focused on the band of Marines.
Just as Rosenthal was training his camera on the men, Lieutenant Schrier walked into his line of vision. Rosenthal later recalled that just as Schrier moved away, Sergeant Bill Genaust, the Marine motion picture photographer, "came across in front of me and over to my right...He said 'I'm not in your way, am I, Joe?' And I said, 'Oh, no." I turned from him and out of the corner of my eye I said, 'Hey Bill, there it goes!' By being polite to each other we damn near missed the shot. I swung my camera around and held it until I could guess that this was the peak of the action and shot."
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It became the most famous picture taken during the war, and was the basis for one of the most famous monuments to US military achievement.
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