U.S. Marine Corps | Iwo Jima: The Hidden Story Behind the Flag

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]February 23rd, 1945, Iwo Jima.

[00:00:06]Six US Marines raised the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi. Joe Rosenthal's photograph spread across the world. [music] It became one of the most reproduced images in American history.

[00:00:17]But that day [music] the flag was raised twice. The first flag went up earlier.

[00:00:22]The second flag became the image [music] the world remembered. And among the six men in that photograph, three never came home. They died on the same island only days later.

[00:00:33]Below this [music] plaque, the pledge of allegiance is engraved. One nation under God. Indivisible, with liberty and justice [music] for all. For three of those men, those words were paid for with their lives.