Marine Corps War Memorial’s History

Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press caught the afternoon flag-raising in an iconic photograph that eventually won a Pulitzer Prize. The centerpiece of the memorial is the group of six Marines who raised the flag on February 23, 1945. The thirty-two foot high figures are shown raising a 60-foot bronze flagpole. The figures stand on a rock slope above a granite base. The entire memorial is about 78 feet tall. The names and dates of every principal Marine Corps engagement since the founding of the Corps forms a gold ring around the base. The memorial is also referred to as the Iwo Jima Memorial. The entire cost of the statue ($850,000) was donated by US Marines, friends of the Marine Corps, and members of the Naval Service. No public funds were used for this memorial.

Sculptor Felix de Weldon, who was in the U.S. Navy during this time created a scale model for the sculpture base on that photo in a single weekend. The memorial was designed by Weldon and architect Horace W. Peaslee. PFC Gagnon, PFC Hayes, and PhM2 Bradley posed for the sculptor as he modeled their faces in clay. These three men were believed to be the survivors of the famous flag raising (the others were killed on Iwo Jima). All available pictures and physical statistics of the three who had given their lives were collected and then used in the modeling of their faces.

The figures in the statue occupy the same positions as they were identified at the time in Rosenthal's historic photograph. The Marines depicted in the sculpture are: Sgt Michael Strank, Cpl Harlon Block, PFC Rene Gagnon, PFC Ira Hayes, PFC Harold Schultz, and PFC Franklin Sousley. These were the men believed to have been the actual flag raisers when de Weldon created the statue. Navy Pharmacist’s Mate 2nd Class John Bradley was mistakenly identified as one of individuals who raised the flag when the historical photo was taken. Bradley was involved in the initial flag raising hours before the famous photo was taken. Based on an in-depth investigation the U.S. Marine Corps has since concluded that PFC Schultz was identified as the six-man caught in the photos.

Construction begin on September 1954. The memorial was unveiled on November 10, 1954. The presiding officials included President Dwight Eisenhower, Vice President Richard Nixon. General Lemuel Shepherd, 20th Commandant of the Marine Corps presented the memorial to the American people.

President John F. Kennedy issued a proclamation on June 12, 1961 that a flag of the United States should fly over the memorial 24 hours a day, the memorial is one of the few official sites where this is required.

There are three scaled down replicas of the memorial are currently located at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina and Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, Hi. A plywood cutout version of the memorial is found along Highway 62 CA, 17 miles from the center of Twenty-nine Palms, CA.