Ray Jacobs: “.That’s when I discovered Dick Gaines’s Gunny G web site.Dick uses Lowery’s classic picture of the first flag raising on his home page.I e mailed him that I was the radioman in that picture.”

Ray Jacobs: ".That's when I discovered Dick Gaines's Gunny G web site.Dick uses Lowery's classic picture of the first flag raising on his home page.I e mailed him that I was the radioman in that picture."

Ray Jacobs: ".That's when I discovered Dick Gaines's Gunny G  web site.Dick uses Lowery's classic picture of the first flag raising on his home page.I e mailed him that I was the radioman in that picture."
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Excerpts

"D + 4 on Iwo Jima was Friday,February 23,1945.At about 10:30 hours I was standing on the broad rim of the crater on top of Suribachi looking up at our colors snapping in the breeze._"

"Suddenly something extraordinary happened.We could clearly hear cheering from the Marines in combat on the plain of Iwo below us.They had spotted the flag and as the word spread more Marines joined in cheering our flag crowning Suribachi some 500 feet above.Soon the boats along the landing beaches and the ships at sea joined in blowing horns and whistles.It was a remarkable moment in Marine battle history but unfortunately soon to be forgotten."

"I was PFC Raymond Jacobs,the radioman with F Company 2nd Battalion 28th Marines.About 40 minutes earlier I had been assigned to accompany an E Company combat patrol for the climb up Suribachi to supply communications between the patrol and battalion."

"The patrol was led by Lt.Harold Shrier,E Company XO. At the top I watched as Lt.Shrier,Sgts.Henry Hansen and Ernest Thomas,Cpl.Charles Lindberg and Pvt Phil Ward secured the flag to a piece of Japanese water pipe."

"Joined by PhM2c John Bradley they walked the flag and pipe over to the high ground,jammed it into the ground and raised the flag. Leatherneck cameraman Sgt.Lou Lowery had been with the patrol since it was formed.He faithfully followed the patrol taking pictures of the people and our movements every step of the way.In particular,he shot about a dozen pictures of the group of eight people most associated with the flag raising.Lowery's pictures clearly show the faces of those people."

"Yet for decades the official Marine Corps record of that event has failed to identify or misidentified five of the people pictured in Lowery's photos? Obviously,given the time and place,no one was interested in gathering names for the record…but there were other forces at work."

"Two hours later photographer Joe Rosenthal snapped a picture of five Marines and a Corpsman raising a replacement flag for the smaller original flag.His picture rightly captured the imagination of the American public.It was a masterpiece of photography and gave a tremendous boost to the image of the Marine Corps in the eyes of the public."

MORE:  At Link Below…

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dVR9K-FJnb8J:www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1562152/posts+gunny+g+gaines&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=gmail
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"A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored; Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. "
~John Adams
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BOTTOM LINE: THINKING MARINES ONLY!
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