One of the most lasting images on war in the 20th Century took place on February 23, 1945, when a photograph was taken of several United States Marines and a United States Navy corpsman raising a flag of the United States on the island of Iwo Jima.

The photograph was taken by Joe Rosenthal. It later would win the Pulitzer Prize for photography. There were six men total that took part in the planting and raising of the flag. Three of those men died during the subsequent battle atop Mount Suribachi. The deceased were Frankoin Sousley, Harlon Block, and Michael Strank.

The three men that initially survived were John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, and Ira Hayes. These men, along with Rosenthal, became celebrities for being a part of the photo, which has forever been memorialized by the sculpting of the USMC War Memorial that located at Arlington National Cemetary.

The famous flag raising was actually the second of the day at that location. In the morning, Rosenthal took a photo of the first flag being raised and planted. However, that flag would eventually be captured during one of the ferocious battles.

Later that day, upon orders from Colonel Chandler Johnson, the Marines eventually made their way to the top of Mount Suribachi and the more famous footage of the flag raising took place. There was also war department film footage of the raising of the flag shot simultaneously.

The photo was not only memorialized by the memorial sculpting, but over the years has been used in countless way from appearing on postage stamps to American propaganda films. It is perhaps as identifiable an image of World War II as any in signifying the spirit and drive of the American soldiers and sailors during the war effort.

It has also been used in countless films and other entertainment medium. Perhaps it is best known for the best selling book written by John Bradley's son James, which was turned into the Clint Eastwood-directed 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers.

It also spurned maybe the most poignant image of the September 11th Terrorist Attacks on New York City in 2001 when Bergen Record photographer Thomas E. Franklin snapped a photo of several firefighters raising an American flag amidst the rubble of debris that formerly was the World Trade Center.