Meet the 6 Veterans who raised the United States flag during the battle of Iwo Jima

It’s a photograph seared into most Americans’ memories and depicted in the life-sized Marine Corps War Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.: six battle-weary Marines, joined almost as one, hoist a U.S. flag over Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945, marking the capture of critically important territory in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

But who were the service members determined to place Old Glory atop Mt. Suribachi, caught in the Pulitzer Prize-winning image by Associated Press photographer Joseph Rosenthal?

Correctly identifying all the men present at what was the second flag-raising during the Battle of Iwo Jima has actually taken about 70 years. (Officially, the hard-fought operation to secure the island, which began Feb. 19, 1945, lasted just 36 days.)

The Marine Corps first revisited the record in June 2016, following queries by a pair of amateur historians that began in 2013. The Marines commissioned a review panel to look at the evidence, and a correction was issued on June 23, 2016, updating the name of one of the men present. But the record was still wrong, and so on further review, the Marines issued another correction on Oct. 17, 2019.

Here’s a short sketch of the men in the second flag-raising image, which became the most iconic photo of the war:

Cpl. Harold P. Keller (1921-1979). Iowa-born Harold “Pie” Keller was identified in 2019 as the sixth man at Mt. Suribachi. According to the obituary on the memorial website, FindaGrave.com, Keller was born near Brooklyn, Iowa, and attended Brooklyn High School. He served in the Marine Corps from 1942-1945, marrying Ruby O’Halloran in 1944 while still on duty. After the war, he returned to Brooklyn, serving for 30 years as a member of the fire department and becoming the fire chief. He had two sons, Ken of Iowa City, Iowa, and Wayne of Grand Forks, North Dakota; and a daughter, Kay Maurer of Clarence, Iowa. (Details: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17178561/harold-paul-keller.)

Cpl. Harlon Block (1924-1945). Born in Yorktown, Texas, Block grew up in Weslaco, Texas, according to a 2015 news release issued by Texas Rep. Filemon Vela, a Democrat. A star football player, Block led the Weslaco Panthers to a conference championship and was named All South Texas End. He and a group of his teammates accelerated their studies and graduated early to enlist in the Marines Corps in 1943. He was eventually assigned to Company E, Second Battalion, 28th Marines, Fifth Marine Division. “One day into the battle, Corporal Block and the 28th Marines began their assault on Mount Suribachi, a 550-foot-high extinct volcano,” Vela said. “After a three-day onslaught, the unit reached the top and defeated the last remaining Japanese defenders.” Block was killed in action on March 1 on Iwo Jima island. (Details: https://vela.house.gov/2015/2/press-release-congressman-vela-honors-south-texas-native-corporal-harlon.)

Pvt. First Class Ira Hamilton Hayes (1923-1955). Born in Sacaton, Arizona, to World War I Veteran, Hayes was an Akimel O’odham, Pima, Indian, according to the Library of Congress and a 2019 blog published by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Prior to enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1942, Hayes was a carpenter on the Gila River Indian Reservation. After earning his “silver wings” as a paratrooper and being nicknamed “Chief Falling Cloud,” he was assigned to Company B, 3rd Parachute Battalion, Divisional Special Troops, 3rd Marine Division, the VA blog notes. Hayes was a highly decorated Marine, the library record shows, receiving among other honors the Presidential Unit Citation with one star for Iwo Jima; the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with four stars, for Vella Lavella, Bougainville, the consolidation of the Northern Solomons and Iwo Jima; and the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. (Details: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n87849282.html and https://blogs.va.gov/VAntage/68545/ira-hayes-immortal-flag-raiser-iwo-jima.)

Pvt. First Class Harold Henry Schultz (1925-1995). The participation of Detroit-born Harold Shultz at the flag-raising was acknowledged by the Marines in its 2016 correction. Shultz entered the Marine Corps in 1943 and left in 1945, after being seriously injured in Japan. He received the Purple Heart, according to a May 5, 2016, story by Popular Mechanics reporter Matthew Hansen. Hansen was writing the account of how he, in 2014, had broken the news about the misidentification of the Marine in the AP photo, while working as a columnist for the Omaha World-Herald. He could find very little information about Schultz, however. “I have thus far unearthed only the barest of information about our missing flag-raiser,” Hansen writes in the magazine piece. “He married only late in life, never had children, and appears to have lost touch with most if not all of his extended family in Michigan, where he was born.” Schultz is second from left in the photo, Hansen continues, but never told his stepdaughter or anyone else that he’s pictured in the “most-reproduced photo in American history.” (Details: https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a20738/whos-really-in-that-iconic-photo-of-iwo-jima.)

Pvt. First Class Franklin Runyon Sousley (1925-1945). Born in Hilltop, Kentucky, Sousley attended Fleming County High School, according to “Iwo Jima Hero,” a story authored by Alli Bramel for the Kentucky Historical Society website. After high school graduation in 1943, he had relocated to Dayton, Ohio, to take a job with General Motors’ Frigidaire Division. He was drafted and entered the U.S. Marine Corps in 1944, eventually assigned as an automatic rifleman to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines of the 5th Marine Division, Bramel writes. He was killed at Kitano Point on Iwo Jima about a month after raising the flag. Bramel’s article notes that Sousley received several posthumous awards for his actions at Iwo Jima, including a Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation with one star, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one star and World War II Victory Medal. (Details: https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/931.)

Sgt. Michael Strank (1919-1945). According to the obituary on FindaGrave.com, Strank was born in Jarabenia in then-Czechoslovakia. He was called Mychal Strenk until his family immigrated to the United States in 1920, part of a wave of newcomers arriving at Ellis Island, according to obituary authors Kit and Morgan Benson. The family settled in Franklin Borough, Pennsylvania, where his father worked as a coal miner. The Bensons write that Strank had a photographic memory, which helped him quickly learn English. After high school graduation in 1937, they note, he entered the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Great Depression-era work relief program. Two years later, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and, in 1942, after being promoted to sergeant, joined the 1st Marine Raiders, fighting at Pavuvu and Bougainville in the 3rd Marine Division. The obituary goes on to say that he later joined in E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, eventually landing on Iwo Jima with the 70,000-strong invasion force. One week after the flag-raising, Strank was killed by enemy artillery during fighting elsewhere on the island. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. (Details: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/2115/michael-strank.)

In August 2016, the Marines also had to correct the record of the first flag-raising at Iwo Jima earlier in the day, captured in a less famous photograph by Sgt. Louis Lowery of Leatherneck magazine. Marine Corps records identified the following service members in that flag-raising event:

1st Lt. Harold G. Schrier
Plt. Sgt. Ernest I. Thomas, Jr.
Sgt. Henry O. Hansen
Cpl. Charles W. Lindberg
Pharmacist Mate 2nd Class John H. Bradley
Pvt. Philip L. Ward

Details: “Marine Corps updates its official records of first flag raising over Iwo Jima,” Marines news release, Aug. 24, 2016: https://rly.pt/33KGSB9

Learn more

“Correction to the Identity of Marines in Photograph of the Flag Raising on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima,” Marines news release, Oct. 17, 2019: https://rly.pt/3sfXmL4

“USMC statement on Iwo Jima flag raisers,” Marines news release, June 23, 2016, https://www.marines.mil/News/News-Display/Article/810457/usmc-statement-on-iwo-jima-flagraisers

“History of the Marine Corps War Memorial,” https://www.nps.gov/gwmp/learn/historyculture/usmcwarmemorial.htm

Bryan McGraw, “The Iwo Jima Flag Raisers: Chaos, Controversy and World War II U.S. Marine Corps Personnel Records,” National Archives presentation, 2016: https://rly.pt/3LVxYSl