Brief Summary: The Marine Memorial

During the Revolutionary War, our founding fathers fought for our freedom. We could have never been able to do it without our armed forces. The Marine Memorial, also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial, is a sculpture standing in Arlington Virginia. It shows the country’s gratitude to Marines and those who have fought beside them.

On February 19, 1945, five marines and one sailor participated in an event that changed the lives of the Marine Corps. On the morning of February 25, 1945, around 10:30 am, men all over the island were overjoyed by the sight of an american flag atop Mount Suribachi. The Marine Memorial is based on an iconic photo from World War II, taken by Joe Rosenthal. The photo is of six men raising an american flag above Mount Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima. The six men on the statue were Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, Harold Schultz, Harlon Block, Michael Strank, and Rene Gagnon. The Memorial represents our nation’s gratitude for marines and those who have fought beside them. The flag raising represented courage, commitment, and honor that the marines had.

They modeled for the memorial. They used all the pictures they could find for the the three marines who had given their lives. The sculptor sculpted all six of the figures into clay. Once the statue was done in clay it was sent to Brooklyn, New York, for casting in bronze. The whole casting process took three years. After the parts were casted and finished, they were reassembled and brought back to Washington, by a three truck convoy. President Eisenhower dedicated the memorial on November 10, 1954, on the 179th anniversary of the U.S. marine