This wasn't the real one though correct? Didn't only like two or three guys put up a little flag, but a photographer wanted a bigger one with a couple others or something?
Nonetheless still a HUGE moment in history.
Depends on what story you listen to, but long before the movie Flags of Our Fathers, the history channel did a show on the flag raising. It's worth watching.
The first flag was raised buy 5 guys, and that's where the story gets muddled I guess. Some say a larger flag was wanted for better viability, and others say some officer wanted that flag for his wall, but the Marine officer in charge on the island called BS, and had it taken down as it belonged to the unit, and had it replaced.
If you have the time, I recommend watching Flags of our fathers, and letters from Iwo Jima. Two very well done movies...
None the less, Iwo was one of many hard fought battles the Marine Corps served valiantly in some of the worst conditions on the earth.
If you like to read, there are a few very good books about Marines with long and distinguished careers.
My good friend Rich's dad was a gunner on a landing craft at Iwo Jima. I remember sitting around with him one night in their den hittin a bottle of single malt, and noticed a picture box on the wall with some ribbons, and metals including a purple heart. I inquired, not knowing he had served in WWII. He faked his ID, and enlisted in the Navy at the age of 16, and was barely 17 when the first Marines hit the beach at Iwo. What he told us that night brought the battle into a completely different light, and I wept as he spoke of the unimaginable horror he witnessed till his craft was hit, and he was wounded.
There is truly no glory in war, in death, in killing. The glory lies within the men who put others before themselves..... then, and now.