February 19, 1945

This date will come and go and not many will know of it's meaning in American
history. On this date 68 years ago U.S. Marines and the forces of Japan would meet
on an island in the Pacific Ocean 700 miles from the Japanese main land. The island
just a speck of land, just eight squire miles of hell, void of most all vegetation. It was
grey in color with black sand beaches, rocky and smelled like sulfur and thus it's
name was sulfur island, in Japanese Iwo Jima, if there was a hell on earth, this was it.

Five days into the battle The Marines took  Mount Suribachi, raising the flag on top,
and the photograph taken on 23 February 1945 by Joe Rosenthal. The photo has been
one of the most copied photo in history. The picture was used by Felix de Weidon to
sculpt the Marine Corps War Memorial adjacent to Arlington Cemetery.

Unfortunately the taking of Mount Suribachi was not the end, the battle lasted till
March 26, 1945 with 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead. The
Japanese lost around 21,844 with about 216 captured. Their was 27 Medals of
Honor 13 awarded Posthumously, 22 awarded to Marines 5 to Navy Corpsmen.

I made this little video to honor the men of Iwo Jima. In the end the survives would
ask each other this one question. Was it worth it?