2 Iconic historical anniversary's today

[echeese]

179 years ago marks the start of the 13 day siege of the Alamo .. . the fight for Texas Independence.

More recently, 70 years ago, the Marines Raised the Flag over Mt Surabachi on the island of Iwo Jima. . .

Here is a 1945 clip of the flag raising.

 

[Duke C #11]

That sounds like a good excuse to re-watch Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. BTW, the still photo which the Iwo Jima Memorial is based on was a pure accident. The photographer lost his balance. As he was falling, his shutter clicked and the result was historic. Also, the Iwo Jima Memorial at Arlington is not the original, which was deemed too small. The original is at Harlingen, near the Marine Military Academy. Of course the flag in the film above is also not the original (which also was deemed to be too small). Is there a pattern here? 

 

[Grandpa Zorro]

Many brave men and women died in order for us to live in the Great State of Texas and in the greatest country in all the world, the United States of America.  May we always remember.

 

[drgilbert]

Amen grandpa

 

[The Bry-Man81]

The Marine at the base of the flag while they were planting it is from my hometown, and it is something we are very proud of

 

[echeese]

The Creation

When the picture was later released, sculptor Dr. Felix W. de Weldon, then on duty with the U.S. Navy, was so moved by the scene that he constructed a scale model within 48 hours, which became the symbol for the 7th and final war bond drive. After the war, Dr. de Weldon felt that the inspiring event should be depicted on a massive scale in our nation’s capital.

Over a nine and a half year period, he labored to prepare a working, full sized model from molding plaster. Gagnon, Hayes and Bradley, the three survivors of the flag raising (the others having been killed in the later phases of the Iwo battle) posed for the sculptor, who modeled their faces in clay. All available pictures and physical statistics of the three who had given their lives were collected and then used in the modeling of their faces.

Once the statue was completed in plaster, it was carefully disassembled and trucked to Brooklyn, New York, for casting in bronze. After the three-year casting process, the bronze parts were trucked to Washington, D.C., for erection at Arlington National Cemetery. The plaster working model was moved to Dr. de Weldon’s summer home and studio in Newport, Rhode Island, for storage.

On November 10, 1954, the 179th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps, President Dwight D. Eisenhower officially dedicated the bronze memorial in Washington.

A Gift to the Marine Military Academy

In October 1981, Dr. de Weldon gifted his original, full sized working model to Marine Military Academy as an inspiration to our young cadets. Other major factors involved in his site selection included:

• The fairly constant temperature and humidity in Harlingen were ideal for the preservation of the molding-plaster figures

The street facing the memorial was appropriately named Iwo Jima Boulevard by MMA’s founders in 1965
MMA is the only place outside of Washington, D.C., where proper honors are rendered with battalion-size dress blue parades
The Marine placing the flagpole into the ground was a Rio Grande Valley native, Corporal Harlon H. Block of Weslaco, Texas. Block’s gravesite resides directly behind the monument