Military
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On the morning of February 23, 1945, the fifth day of battle, a 40-man Marine combat patrol led by First Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier climbed Mount Suribachi, a 550-foot extinct volcano at the southern tip of Iwo Jima, to seize and occupy the crest and raise a small American flag. At the crater rim, some Marines fought off Japanese defenders while others found an iron pipe, attached the flag, and raised the Stars and Stripes. Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal, watching the flag go up, declared, "The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for another 500 years." Soon afterward, another patrol raised a larger flag visible across the island, and Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal photographed that moment. For Marines on the battlefield, the two flag raisings offered hope for a quick victory, but the Japanese resistance hardened and the fighting continued for another month.
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