Marines say they misidentified one of the men in iconic Iwo Jima photo

[Ooh-Rah]

Ummm...wow, just wow.

Marines say they misidentified one of the men in iconic Iwo Jima photo

WASHINGTON — The Marine Corps acknowledged Thursday it had misidentified one of the six men in the iconic 1945 World War II photo of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima.

The investigation solved one mystery but raised another. The Marine Corps investigation identified a man who has never been officially linked to the famous photo: Pfc. Harold Schultz, who died in 1995 and went through life without publicly talking about his role.

“Why doesn’t he say anything to anyone,” asked Charles Neimeyer, a Marine Corps historian who was on the panel that investigated the identities of the flag raisers. “That’s the mystery.”

“I think he took his secret to the grave,” Neimeyer said.

 

[AWP]

Given the carnage of that battle and "pick up" nature of gathering the Marines and Corpsman, I'm not surprised. This is a big deal, but understandable.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

Given the carnage of that battle and "pick up" nature of gathering the Marines and Corpsman, I'm not surprised. This is a big deal, but understandable.

It was also a VERY different generation of men. I chuckled a bit that the author took a shot at our current generation...

Schultz may have mentioned his role at least once. MacDowell said she recalls he said he was one of the flag raisers over dinner in the early 1990s when they were discussing the war in the Pacific.
“Harold, you are a hero,” she said she told him.
“Not really. I was a Marine,” he said.
She described him as quiet and self-effacing.

It’s difficult to fathom his desire to keep his role quiet in an era when many Navy SEALs and other servicemen are rushing books into print about their exploits. During WWII many veterans were reluctant to speak about their experiences because it reminded them of the horrors of war.