What were the names of the 5 men that raised Our American Flag on Iwo Jima?

Question

correction.. there were 6 men.. i didnt count right. so sorry

Answer 1

There were actually six men, 5 Marines and 1 Navy hospital corpsman, Their names are Sgt. Michael Strank, Cpl. Harlon H. Block, Pfc. Franklin R. Sousley, Pfc. Rene A. Gagnon, Pfc. Ira Hayes, and PhM. 2/c John H. Bradley, USN.
It's an inspirational moment in our history. Hope this helps

Answer 2

Iwo Jima Marines Names

Answer 3

Read all about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_flag_on_Iwo_Jima, I won't copy and paste the article, like "some people". You obviously have a computer of your own.

Answer 4

The famous picture taken by Rosenthal actually captured the second flag-raising event of the day. A U.S. flag was first raised atop Suribachi soon after it was captured early in the morning of February 23, 1945. Captain Dave E. Severance, the commander of Easy Company (2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division), ordered Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier to take a patrol to raise an American flag at the summit to signal to others that it had fallen. After a fire-fight, a 54-by-28 inch (137-by-71 cm) flag was raised, and photographed by Staff Sergeant Louis R. Lowery, a photographer with Leatherneck magazine.[3][4][5] However, the first flag raised by the Marines was too small to be seen easily from the nearby landing beaches.

The Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, had decided the previous night that he wanted to go ashore and witness the final stage of the fight for the mountain. Now, under a stern commitment to take order from Howlin' Mad Smith, the secretary was churning ashore in the company of the blunt, earthy general. Their boat touched the beach just after the flag went up, and the mood among the high command turned jubilant. Gazing upward, at the red, white, and blue speck, Forrestal remarked to Smith: "Holland, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years."
Forrestal was so taken with fervor of the moment that he decided he wanted the Suribachi flag as a souvenir. The news of this wish did not sit well with [2nd Battalion Commander] Chandler Johnson, whose temperament was every bit as fiery as Howlin Mad's. 'To hell with that!' the colonel spat when the message reached him. The flag belonged to the battalion, as far as Johnson was concerned. He decided to secure it as soon as possible, and dispatched his assistant operations officer, Lieutenant Ted Tuttle, to the beach to scare up a replacement flag. As an afterthought, Johnson called after Tuttle "And make it a bigger one."[6]


Michael Strank, Harlon Block, Ira Hayes, and Franklin Sousley spent the morning of the 23rd laying a telephone wire to the top of Suribachi, on orders from Colonel Chandler Johnson, passed on by Captain Severance. Severance also dispatched Rene Gagnon, a runner, to the command post for fresh SCR-300 batteries. Meanwhile, according to the official Marine Corps history, Tuttle had found a flag in nearby LST 779, made his way back to the command post, and gave it to Johnson. Johnson, in turn, gave it to Gagnon with orders to take it back up Suribachi and raise it.[7] The official Marine Corps history of the event is that Tuttle received the flag from Ensign Alan Wood of LST 779, who in turn had received the flag from a supply depot in Pearl Harbor. However, the Coast Guard Historian's Office supports claims made by Robert Resnick, who served aboard LST 758. "Before he died in November 2004, Resnick said Gagnon came aboard LST-758 the morning of Feb. 23 looking for a flag. Resnick said he grabbed one from a bunting box and asked permission from commanding officer Lt. Felix Molenda to donate it. Resnick kept quiet about his participation until 2001."[8]

A colorized version of the photo indicating the six men who raised the flag:
██ Ira Hayes

██ Franklin Sousley

██ John Bradley

██ Harlon Block

██ Michael Strank

██ Rene GagnonThe Marines reached the top of the mountain around noon, where Gagnon joined them. Despite the large numbers of Japanese troops in the immediate vicinity, the 40-man patrol made it to the top of the mountain without being fired at once, as the Japanese were under bombardment at the time.[9]

Rosenthal, along with Marine photographers Bob Campbell and Bill Genaust (who was killed in action nine days after the flag raising)[10] was climbing Suribachi at this time. On the way up, the trio met Lowery (the man who photographed the first flag raising). They had been considering turning around, but Lowery told them that the summit was an excellent vantage point from which to take pictures.

Along with Navy corpsman Bradley, the Marines raised the U.S. flag using an old Japanese water pipe for a flagpole. Rosenthal's trio reached the summit as the marines were attaching the flag to the pipe. Rosenthal put down his Speed Graphic camera (which was set to 1/400th of a second shutter speed, with the f-stop between 8 and 16) on the ground so he could pile rocks to stand on for a better vantage point. In doing so, he nearly missed the shot. Realizing he was about to miss it, Rosenthal quickly swung his camera up and snapped the photograph without using the viewfinder.[11] Ten years after the flag-raising, Rosenthal wrote:

Out of the corner of my eye, I had seen the men start the flag up. I swung my camera and shot the scene. That is how the picture was taken, and when you take a picture like that, you don't come away saying you got a great shot. You don't know.

Bill Genaust, who was standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder with Rosenthal about thirty yards from the flag raising, was shooting motion-picture film during the flag-raising. His film also captures the flag raising at an almost-identical angle to Rosenthal's famous shot.

Flag raised atop Suribachi (from 16mm color film), by Marine Sgt. Bill GenaustVideo of the flag raising on Iwo Jima (file info)
Film shot by Bill Genaust, excerpted from the 1945 "Carriers Hit Tokyo" newsreel. (Note: this reproduction is black-and-white, whereas Genaust's original footage was color)
Problems seeing the videos? See media help.

Of the six men pictured — Michael Strank, Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, John Bradley (the Navy corpsman), and Harlon Block — only three (Hayes, Gagnon, and Bradley) survived the battle. Strank was killed six days after the flag raising when a shell, likely fired from an offshore American destroyer, tore his heart out; Block was killed by a mortar a few hours after Strank; Sousley — the last of the flag-raisers to succumb — was shot and killed by a sniper on March 21, a few days before the Island was declared secure.[12]

Answer 5

I've always wondered!! When you find out let me know!! Please? That would be so cool!!:)