The likelihood that you have not seen the photograph is minimal. It is iconic and seared into the minds of generations. In it, six Marines work together to erect the U.S. flag on top of Mount Suribachi on the South Pacific island of Iwo Jima.
It was Friday, Feb. 23, 1945, and Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal was present that early afternoon, after the mountaintop was captured. A smaller flag had been raised that morning.
The black and white print was first published in newspapers that following Sunday and has since been reprinted hundreds of thousands of times. It’s the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography during the same year it was published.
The six Marines have been identified as Sgt. Michael Strank, Cpl. Harlan Block, PFC Franklin Sousley, PFC Ira Hayes, Cpl. Harold Schultz and Cpl. Harold Keller. Sousley was misidentified as Hospital Corpsman John Bradley until June 2016 — Bradley was present at both flag raising but not in the photograph — and Keller had been misidentified as Rene Gagnon until 2019.
Much has been said and written about these men, and many individuals have been considered heroes because they were in the right place at the right time. Other heroes have gone unsung because no one saw the things they did.
Bradley himself never claimed to be in the photograph — never mentioned his involvement in the capturing of Iwo Jima to his family — but his son James penned a book entitled “Flags of Our Fathers” based on memorabilia and notes he and his brothers found in his father’s office after John Bradley died. All the evidence available at the time pointed to Bradley’s involvement, and the book (and later, film) helped to focus on the heroic efforts of every young man who stood up to fight for his country during the difficult days of World War II.
Gagnon had taken a flag up the mountain to replace the original, smaller flag erected, and helped with raising it. This was not, however, the flag raising photographed. In all the confusion and efforts of raising and re-raising flags, it’s no wonder even Gagnon himself did not know the photo did not include him. Faces are not clearly seen in the photo, and uniforms were nearly identical.
Whether they participated in the photographed flag raising or not, they were nevertheless part of the group of men who played their role in that second worldwide conflict.
Their faces are not known to many who still live today. But their names are, and many more know the photograph that symbolized victory and perseverance, even hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
Did you know that more than 3,200 individuals are mentioned by name in the Holy Bible? Millions more are mentioned as parts of groups, or individually without their names being recorded. But more than 3,200 are singled out by name. If you ran through a mental list of the names you know from the Bible, there’s no way most of us would get far into that number.
In the book of Jeremiah the prophet, chapter 36 records that Jeremiah dictated to a scribe named Baruch everything God had said to him, and asked Baruch to read the scroll in the temple, since Jeremiah at that time was banned from entering the temple himself. We read that a man named Micaiah heard Baruch read, then went into the chamber of the king’s secretary, Elishama, to tell everyone there what he had heard. Several other names are given to us in that passage, listed only once in Scripture.
Though this passage is the only time the name of this Elishama is recorded — he’s mentioned twice more in the following verses, all three times as “Elishama the secretary” — he was apparently a person of position as the secretary to the king. We know nothing else of him from the Bible. But in 1986, outside Jerusalem a clay seal was found that is inscribed with the words “Elishama, servant of the king” — extrabiblical proof of this man’s existence and his position.
There is a strong likelihood that I know people who have been influential in my life whose names you do not know. Likewise, I probably do not know the names of many who have been influential in your life. It does not mean they are not important.
People do notice you. People do remember you. Like those whom you remember, it may be for something wonderful or for something else entirely. Not everyone mentioned by name in Scripture is mentioned because he or she is a positive example. Not everyone you know is a positive example, either. But there are those to whom we look when we need inspiration for how to live a life worth living, a life that makes a difference in this world.
Imitate those good examples you’ve seen. Be the good example others need to see.
The Iwo Jima flag photograph is now in the public domain, meaning anyone can reproduce it. Anyone can copy it and distribute it.Though even the names of these men may not be always remembered, what they did and what it represented will be long in our nation’s memory, perhaps until the very end.
Anyone can reproduce good examples, good behavior, inspirational attitudes. Though your name may never be remembered, what you do may just stand the test of time.
Brett Campbell can be reached at ChunkyBrett@gmail.com.
