♪♪
[ Machine-gun fire ]
ANNOUNCER: Iwo Jima --
the most heavily fortified
island in the world.
[ Explosions ]
MAN: When we landed on
the beach, it was just
absolute chaos.
[ Explosion in distance ]
ANNOUNCER: After 72 hours of
continuous pounding,
our patrols move forward.
[ Machine-gun fire ]
[ Explosion ]
♪♪
MAN #2: We carried it up to
the highest spot we could find,
and we raised it.
When we raised that flag,
the troops down below
just went crazy.
[ Ship horn blows ]
MAN #3: All the whistles on
the boats went off.
[ Ship horns blowing ]
MAN #4: There was nothing more
beautiful than to see
the flag flying.
MAN #5: That flag, it was small,
and I got word that the general
wanted a larger flag
put up there so that everybody
could see it, and he said,
"I suggest that you get
two cameramen over there --
a movie man and a still man --
to cover it."
They got there just in time.
They put the second flag up,
and Rosenthal caught it.
Staff Sergeant Bill Genaust,
who shot motion pictures,
stood right alongside of him.
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
[ Airplanes passing ]
WOMAN: It is on the 5th day
of a 36-day battle.
So the battle was far from over.
But it was seen as this marker
of impending victory.
[ Gunfire ]
♪♪
It really took on a life
of its own.
It attained a sort of
mythic status to civilians
on the home front.
ANNOUNCER: A single photograph
told the story.
Born of battle, it fired
the imagination of all America,
for it expressed the unity,
drive, and determination
of the people.
Inspired by the wire photo,
the noted sculptor
Felix de Weldon,
then serving in the Navy,
began work immediately.
He completed a small model
within 48 hours
after the photograph had reached
the United States.
The great moment was recorded
in clay, but this was only
the first of many models.
WOMAN: Over the nine years
from the time that de Weldon
made the first wax model
in 1945, he made
several different versions
in different sizes
and different materials.
ANNOUNCER: They raised that flag
on Iwo with their blood.
Repay them with
your bond purchases.
MAN #6: That we may dedicate
this statue to the memory of men
who have died for our country.
WOMAN: Soon thereafter, you have
a Congressman who submits
a proposed bill for
a national monument
in that same design,
but much larger.
There was a lot of debate
over the placement, the design,
the funding of
the Marine Corps War Memorial.
Once de Weldon's statue received
a federal approval and the tract
at Arlington Ridge
was decided upon,
he began making studies for
the Marine Corps War Memorial.
ANNOUNCER: Authorized by
the unanimous vote of Congress,
this memorial is made possible
by donations of the people...
by former Marines,
the fathers and mothers
of our fallen comrades,
friends of the Corps,
and men of the Navy
and Marine Corps themselves.
♪♪
It would be the spirit of
all Marines, from Tripoli
and Chapultepec,
from Belleau Woods
and back across the Pacific,
from Wake Island to Japan.
A memorial to
the heroic gallantry
of all our fighting men.
[ Steam hissing ]
♪♪
WOMAN: De Weldon works
with a foundry to create
the monument in pieces --
over 100 pieces...
....which then were assembled
on-site.
♪♪
This, then, is completed
for the memorial to have
its formal dedication
on the anniversary
of the founding of
the Marine Corps -- the 10th
of November, 1954.
[ "Marines' Hymn" plays ]
The design for
the Marine Corps War Memorial
was unique within the scope
of the National Mall
within the nation's capital.
♪♪
MAN #7: The memorial's location
right next to Arlington Cemetery
makes it impossible to ignore
the cost that's paid by those
who are willing to protect
our country.
♪♪
MAN #8: How many
countless Americans have died
for that flag
in how many different conflicts?
It's a linkage, you know,
from one Marine to the next,
from one conflict to the next,
from one decade or century
to the next.
♪♪
MAN #9: I hope that
when young people see
the Marine Corps War Memorial,
they will recognize
that those guys
in that memorial statue
represented the other
70,000-plus
who were on that island
and paid the high price
so you can have what you
have today...
...and that's freedom.
♪♪