Raising the Flag, Joe Rosenthal and the Duty to Those Left Behind
By Colonel Ronald D. Ray, USMC (ret.)
Joe Rosenthal came to Louisville, KY in 1975 for the 30th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima to talk about his famous photograph of the flag raising on Mount Suribachi in February 1945. As a Major, I was the Commanding Officer of the Marine Corps Reserve Unit and my responsibilities for the day included providing escort and transport for the dignitaries.
General Edwin Simmons was in attend
ance as historian of the Marine Corps, and the General introduced me to Joe Rosenthal. General Simmons – over a long friendship -introduced me to many of the military’s bravest and most notable from World War II, Korea and Vietnam including soldiers like General Hal Moore, author of We Were Soldiers Once and Young.
Photo: Nancy Wong
Joe Rosenthal was on Iwo when at 0859, Feb 20, 1945 the first of an eventual 30,000 Marines landed on the beach. After five weeks of some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of World War II, American forces achieved victory on Iwo Jima as the flag was raised on Mount Suribachi. Joe’s remarks that anniversary day mentioned the expectation that he would capture another photograph like the Marine’s flag raising which by then had been cast as an official US Marine Corps War Memorial, but he humbly said there would never be another like it. I wondered at the time if he was saying that once in the presence of that kind of hell is more than enough.
On that day in 1975, I had the pleasure of arranging further transport for Mr. Rosenthal. It was also a sad anniversary for another. Joe was going to travel on into the Kentucky mountains to visit the mother of one of the 6 flag raisers on Iwo Jima depicted in his famous photograph – red headed Kentucky boy Franklin Sousley.
Joe came to Louisville again and again to make the trip to visit the mother of Franklin Sousley. He stayed in touch over the years and graciously gave me a print of his black and white photograph and signed it. Though Joe and many other witnesses, to that terrible day in the Pacific so far from home, are gone I will never forget him or his pilgrimage to visit Franklin Sousley’s “Gold Star” mother. Joe’s photograph remains on my office wall as my small tribute and also to remember the great price paid for liberty by those who love it and are willing to defend it.
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The following was taken from iwojima.com, link below
Franklin Sousley was born Sept. 19, 1925 in Hilltop, KY, and he died March 21, 1945 Iwo Jima, Japan. Franklin was a red-haired, freckle-faced “Opie Taylor” raised on a tobacco farm. His favorite hobbies were hunting and dancing. Fatherless at 9, Franklin became the main man in his mother’s life. Franklin enlisted at 17 and sailed for the Pacific on his 18th Birthday. All that’s left of Franklin is a few pictures and two letters Franklin wrote home to his mother:
————July 1944, Letter from Training Camp: “Mother, you said you were sick. I want you to stay in out of that field and look real pretty when I come home. You can grow a crop of tobacco every summer, but I sure as hell can’t grow another mother like you.”
————Feb. 27, 1945 Letter from Iwo Jima: “My regiment took the hill with our company on the front line. The hill was hard, and I sure never expected war to be like it was those first 4 days. Mother, you can never imagine how a battlefield looks. It sure looks horrible. Look for my picture because I helped put up the flag. Please don’t worry and write.”
Franklin was the last flag-raiser to die on Iwo Jima, on March 21 at the age of 19. When word reached his mother that Franklin was dead, “You could hear her screaming clear across the fields at the neighbor’s farm.” Franklin is buried at Elizaville Cemetery, Kentucky.
