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MESSAGE IN HONOR OF THE 75TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE HISTORIC RAISING OF THE NATIONAL FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ATOP THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT SURIBACHI IN IWO JIMA

Ladies and gentlemen, to all the people of the United States of America, to all our remaining living veterans of the Second World War of 1939-1945 and of all conflicts past and present and their families, to our veterans, active servicemen and women, reservists and families of the entire United States Armed Forces, and to all the uniformed military and civil security services of the Allied combatants of this conflict, to all the immediate families, relatives, children and grandchildren of the deceased veterans, fallen service personnel and wounded personnel of our military services and civil uniformed security and civil defense services, to all our workers, farmers and intellectuals, to our youth and personnel serving in youth uniformed and cadet organizations and all our athletes, coaches, judges, sports trainers and sports officials, and to all our sports fans, to all our workers of culture, music, traditional arts and the theatrical arts, radio, television, digital media and social media, cinema, heavy and light industry, agriculture, business, tourism and the press, and to all our people of the free world:

Today, the whole world remembers among others the arrival in 1778 of the great Prussian general Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben to the Continental Army quarters in Valley Forge, the beginning of the historic siege of The Alamo in 1836, and the anniversary of the 1847 Battle of Buena Vista, the 1905 formation of the Rotary Club, the beginning of the February Revolution and the formation of the Federal Communications Commission in 1917, the Miracle on Ice of 1980 and the attempted coup by several officers of the Spanish Civil Guard in the Cortes in 1981.

Today we join in the celebrations of the forty-eighth anniversary since the declaration of the Republic of Guayana in 1970, the one hundredth year anniversary of the 1918 declaration of independence of the Republic of Estonia and the thirty-fourth year anniversary of the independence of Brunei Darussalam in 1984, as well as the 4th year anniversary of the closing of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games and the victory of the Ukrainian Euromaidan Revolution of 2014.

On this day in 1945 the Red Army and the Polish Armed Forces in the East ended the Nazi occupation of Poznan, the Philippine capital city of Manila was liberated from the Japanese despite its wartime damages and at the cost of so many lives, the Los Banos internment camp in the namesake town in Laguna Province was found and its POWs then liberated by a joint force of Filipino guerillas and American soldiers from the US Army’s 11th Airborne Division, and the RAF Bomber Command destroyed Pforzheim from the air.

Today marks 75 years since Easy Company, 2/506, 3BCT, 101ABN departed from Hagenau in northeastern Alsace, France, after weeks of helping its liberation and reinforcing its defenses against any remaining German resistance. Easy Company’s deployment in this part of France just miles from the Rhine was marked by times of sadness and joys among its men, most notably the return of Market Garden veteran David Webster and the promotion of some of its veteran officers.

And today, ladies and gentlemen, in these changing times in the long history of our planet and of all humankind, together with the thousands of serving men and women of the United States Marine Corps, we celebrate 75 years since the historic moment that forever has been a part of the heritage of the Marine Corps and the long 244 year history of the United States of America: the diamond jubilee anniversary since the very day that the national flag of the United States of America was raised on the peak of Mount Suribachi in the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. What we are celebrating today is now in the clear light of the recent revelation of the United States Marine Corps which was made public on June 23 of 2016 thanks to efforts made by historians and history experts and resource persons concerned, ending years of speculation and mystery surrounding the events of this this battle that is, for all generations, part of the history of not just the Corps, but of the entire United States Armed Forces. It is a battle that deserves our profound remembrance and commemoration, and a historic moment that will be always remembered for all our generations.

It had been days after the beginning of one of the biggest battles in the history of the Corps that exactly 75 years ago, in fulfillment of the behest of the then Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal who upon hearing of the news of the capture of Mount Suribachi by some of the thousands of Marines from mostly the 5th and 3rd Marine Divisions, gave the order that the men of the 5th Division would be responsible for the national flag to be hoisted on that mountain at once to ensure not only the occupation of the island by the armed forces of the United States but also to inform the world that once more the Marine Corps has proven its worth as an amphibious force ready to serve the purposes of national defense and global security and stability, officially assigned this task to the men of 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment of the 5th Marine Division, under battalion commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Chandler Johnson, who in turn designated Easy Company, under its commander Captain Dave Severance, thru its 3rd Platoon under the leadership of its company XO and the new platoon commander 1Lt Harold G. Schrier (who took over command of the platoon as its past commander was pulled out due to wounds sustained in the battle, and later on won a Navy Cross) to handing the hard task. It was late in the morning when that platoon raised a smaller flag, which was sourced from the battalion landing ship, at the top of the said peak by personnel of said platoon, including SSGT Henry “Hank” Hansen, assisted by PHM2C James Bradley, PSGT Ernest I. Thomas Jr., CPLs Charles Lindberg and Harold Schultz, PFCs James Robertson and Raymond Jacobs and PVT Phil Ward. But later in the day, the bigger flag, the one seen by photographers Joe Rosenthal and Bob Campbell and cameraman Bill Genaust (the latter two Marine combat photographers), was raised by said platoon, but with different people raising it. The bigger flag was obtained by the battalion command upon the Secretary’s direct request, given the size of the small flag. According to the official USMC records 1LT Alfred Turtle, the then battalion assistant commander for operations, received the said order to find a replacement flag and left his CP at once. After looking and asking from ship’s crews for a larger flag, he then went aboard the US Navy ship LST 779 and later on obtained the flag on that amphibious vessel (it was from a supply post stationed in the then Navy Station Pearl Harbor, today Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, where it was assigned during that time) after the consent of the ship’s commanding officer was sought to obtain it. The color now in his posession, the lieutenant ran to the shore and upon reaching the battalion CP, he told his battalion leadership that the flag is now ready. But according to a 2004 discovery made by the Historian’s Office of the US Coast Guard, reinforced by a 1991 New York Times interview by 2LT Wells, minutes of inquries then led PFC Rene Gagnon to the LST USS Duval County docked offshore, where he later boarded, and he later found the larger national standard that the ship had and the said flag – hand woven by civilian worker Mabel Sauvageau from the Mare Island Naval Shipyard – was given to him by USCG Quartermaster Robert Resnick after the corresponding permission had been granted by his commanding officer LT Frank Molenda for him to give the flag, which matched what Secretary Forrestal had needed. Leaving the ship with the flag now in his posession, he passed by Wells and Turner on his way to report to the battalion CP at the foothills, just as he was ordered to.

The three combat photographers, by noon, were joined by a squad from that same platoon, which had Gagnon, Schultz, SGT Michael Strank, CPL Harlon Block, and PFCs Ira Hayes and Franklin Sousley, and upon reaching that peak the 6 Marines, as the three men’s cameras were now ready, raised the bigger flag atop Mount Suribachi, the historic hoisting of the national flag atop the summit of Mount Suribachi, which has become a part of our common legacy and of the 245 year long history of the United States Marine Corps, the 73 year history of the United States Armed Forces and of the 244 year history of the entire United States of America. (This historic event in the history of the Corps was recreated with great detail in the 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers with Adam Beach, John Michael Cross, Barry Pepper, Ryan Philippe, Jesse Bradford and Benjamin Walker playing the flagbearers, and the late Paul Walker, Tom McCarthy and Alessandro Mastrobuono playing the men who raised the first flag, plus Jamie Bell, Neal McDonough and Robert Patrick, and the film Letters from Iwo Jima, made that same year, tells of the heroic Japanese defense of the island that took many Japanese lives in the process as against so many American Marines that had died and injured.) This is the very important day marked in the annals of the long and glorious history of this noble institution, in which we today honor, as one united people, the many thousands of Marines of V Amphibious Corps under its commander, General Holland Smith, who together with servicemen from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard, risked their lives to defend the American people and the interest of the homeland abroad, as well as its obligations to global security against domestic and international aggresions, as well as to disaster relief at home and overseas and building ties of friendship and cooperation with friendly and allied countries worldwide. Many Marines of all ranks had all through these days of the battle had fallen for the defense of the homeland and her people during this historic long battle in the midst of the sands of Iwo Jima against the Japanese aggressor – a battle that forever has become part of the legendary United States Marine Corps and of our proud military history streching for many centuries. As one people, we are honored today to mark this historic day in our history and of the entire United States Marine Corps, which ensures its existence for generation upon generation of Americans today and in the future. No matter what happens in the world today the Corps is ever more prepared to face the challenges of the modern world and fight for the independence and sovereignty of the United States and the hopes of freedom of millions everywhere!

As the battle ended on the 26th of March, just more than a month since it began and of the historic raising of the Stars and Stripes atop Mount Suribachi, only Tatum, Bradley, Schultz, Gagnon and Hayes were among the hundreds of thousands who went back to their homeland as victors to the very people they swore to defend at the cost of their very own lives. The victory in Iwo Jima cost more than 20 thousand United States Armed Forces casualties, an estimated 6,800 deaths and 19,000 wounded servicemen in the battle for the liberation of Iwo Jima, more than in every battle fought by our armed forces in the Pacific. Among those who perished were 12 Marines whose bravery at the cost of their lives were rewarded by the entire nation with the posthumous awards of the Medal of Honor and a number of others whose brave sacrfices ensured the victorious conclusion of this battle. Indeed it was at such a huge cost that this battle was won for the Allies, most especially for the United States Armed Forces, and a high cost of deaths and wounded as against the Japanese forces. 75 years on since this historic event, the millions of Americans at home and abroad today recall this important victory, one of many to be won in the Pacific Theater of Operations by the gallant millions of men and women of the Armed Forces together with their gallant allies abroad, which smashed the walls of oppression and tyrannt of the Axis Powers represented by the Empire of Japan and brought freedom to millions in the Asia-Pacific. In this historic anniversary, once more, we are reminded yet again of the patriotic and internationalist responsibility of the Armed Forces in the defense of the independence and liberty of millions all over the world, and the responsibility of all Americans to help not just in national defense but in the building of national prosperity, security and safety, preservation of the country’s religions and cultures, safekeeping the enviroment and the sites of national importance, and becoming active in sports and recreation.

Indeed “Uncommon valor was a common virtue”, said the great Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, when he was asked to describe the bravery and courage of the hundred thousand Marines of V Amphibious Corps who served there in this, one of the bloodiest battles that the United States Marine Corps faced in the Second World War in the Pacific Theater of Operations and one of the biggest victories of the Allies in this part of the world, alongside the men of the other service branches of the United States Armed Forces – our Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, who made this great victory happen in the sands of Iwo Jima against determined odds. His words are forever written in marble in the Arlington National Cemetery’s Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, the very monument made on the basis of the historic photograph of the Iwo Jima flag raising that today, after 66 years since its historic inauguration, proudly stands over the Arlington fields and the graves of so many Marines over the centuries who even at the cost of their lives, served faithfully always to their country and people, and honoring the 244 years of long and faithful service of the United States Marine to the people and government of the United States of America and to all the people of the free world. In these changing times of our history, by our acts of remembrance and honor in memory of the events of the long battle for the liberation of Iwo Jima against the forces of the Empire of Japan, we never forget to remember the heroic actons done during the days of this great battle and most especially the six thousand American military servicemen who perished in this tiny island for the sake of the freedoms, dreams and aspirations not just of the people of the United States of America but also of all the millions of people of the free world.

Ladies and gentlemen and people of our free world:

As one united people, it is with deep respect and gratitude, with humble respect and our deepest thanks not just to those who died but also to those who survived and our remaining veterans of this great battle living among us, as the whole world remembers and celebrates this very moment in our history and most of all in the history of the glorious United States Armed Forces, we, in remembrance of all the fallen and with profound thoughts of all who serve today in the armed forces and in our uniformed security and civil defense services, greet each other and the men and women of the United States Marine Corps as we celebrate together as one nation and one free world the seventy-five year anniversary of the historic raising of the national flag of the United States of America by these 6 brave Marines of the 5th Marine Division, risking even to lose their very own lives in the defense of their country and her people. The diamond legacy left by this historic act remains part of our long history and the patrimony of her Armed Forces, and thus is one of the greatest defining actions by the millions who served during those critical times of our history, those who are collectively called as our “greatest generation” of the armed forces and our civilian security services. Only few remain living among the thousands who survived the battle and helped win one of the greatest operations in the military history of the United States, and today we thank these remaining living veterans of Iwo Jima, who 75 years ago helped bring forth the victory over the Empire of Japan in the Asia-Pacific, for their service to the nation and for their contributions to the victory won in this part of the world. To them, we owe our gratitude and pledge thus to honor the legacy they left behind in our history and to forever remain committed to fight just as they did long ago towards a better world.

May this great moment, which forever belongs in the annals of American military history, be for all generations a moment that will be forever a part of our history and sacred patrimony, and a part in the long 245-year history of the United States Marine Corps and the 73 years of the modern United States Armed Forces, truly a sacred and memorable moment of national pride that will be forever be remembered and never forgotten in our hearts for years and decades to come and in the hearts of all the people of the free world, and most of all of the American people, a memorable moment that will be treasured to our children. For this very immortal battle, one of many Allied victories in the Pacific Theater of Operations and one of the greatest military victories of the United States Armed Forces in this part of the world during the Second World War, shall be remembered as the one very battle that showed the world the bravery, courage and determination of the United States Marine for the defense of the American nation and all the free peoples of the world, and for the preservation of the values of freedom and liberty on which the United States was formed, thanks in part of the courage and gallantry shown by the US Marines in the early years of the nation that it helped to build thanks to the efforts of the Second Continental Congress 245 years past. Today, as we honor this historic anniversary of such a great moment by these 6 Marines for our country and Corps, we once again recall the sacrifices made by the men and women of our Armed Forces in the victory won in this battle and many other combat operations in the Second World War in Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific, flying the flag that today was raised in triumph in the peak of Mount Suribachi and in all our installations and military bases, in the sacred cause of the defense of the republic and her people and the cause of independence and liberty of the peoples of the free world. Once more, we today reaffirm that no matter what the dangers this world might face, with the strength and determination of the thousands of servicemen and women in the Armed Forces, and the inspiration of our heroes of the past, we will overcome all trials and disasters, and forge onwards towards the goal of a better tomorrow for our future generations.

In closing, may the eternal memory of these brave 6 Marine flagbearers, who risked their futures and their lives for the sake of our liberty 75 years ago when they raised the very symbol of our freedom, sovereignity and independence, be honored all the more by our efforts by all of us today, the people of this great land together with the free peoples of the world, everyday and by the generations to come – the very eternal memory of them and of all the millions who fought in the Second World War who will never be forgotten and will be honored for all time, in very age, century upon century, for the peace of our world and for the future of humanity!

And may this historic moment live on the hearts of the millions of American people and forever remain a celebration worthy to be honored as forever a part of the history and patrimony not just of the United States Marine Corps and the United States Armed Forces, but also as a great moment in the history of our great independent homeland the United States of America!

ETERNAL GLORY TO THE FALLEN OF THE BATTLE OF MANILA AND THE BOMBING OF PFORZHEIM!

LONG LIVE THE 36TH NATIONAL DAY OF BRUNEI DARUSSALAM, THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF GUAYANA, AND THE 6th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLOSING OF THE SOCHI WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES AND THE VICTORY OF THE EUROMAIDAN REVOLUTION!

ETERNAL GLORY TO THE MEMORY OF THE 6 MARINES WHO ON THIS VERY IMPORTANT DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY EXACTLY 75 YEARS AGO ON THIS VERY DAY IN OUR HISTORY, ATOP THE PEAK OF MOUNT SURIBACHI IN IWO JIMA, RISKING EVEN TO SUFFER DEATH BY ENEMY GUNFIRE, BAYONETS AND GRENADES, RAISED THE VERY SYMBOL OF FREEDOM AND LIBERTY, OUR GLORIOUS NATIONAL FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

ETERNAL GLORY AND MEMORY TO THE HEROES, MARTYRS AND VETERANS OF THE GREAT BATTLE OF IWO JIMA, ONE OF THE GREATEST BATTLES EVER FOUGHT BY THE MEN OF THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS!

ETERNAL GLORY TO THE MEMORY OF ALL THE VETERANS, ALLIED HEROES AND FALLEN OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS!

LONG LIVE THE GLORIOUS, INVINCIBLE AND LEGENDARY UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS, ALWAYS FAITHFUL TILL THE END FOR THE PEOPLE AND THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND OF THE FREE WORLD!

GLORY TO THE VICTORIOUS PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND HER UNIFORMED SERVICES!

AND FINALLY, GLORY TO THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, DEFENDERS OF OUR FREEDOM AND LIBERTY AND GUARANTEE OF A FUTURE WORTHY OF OUR GENERATIONS TO COME!

May our Almighty God bless our great country, the land of the free and the home of the brave, the first of the free republics of our modern world, our beloved, great and mighty United States of America! Semper Fidelis! Oorah!

2300h, February 23, 2020, the 244th year of the United States of America, the 245th year of the United States Army, Navy and Marine Corps, the 126th of the International Olympic Committee, the 124th of the Olympic Games, the 79th since the beginning of the Second World War in the Eastern Front and in the Pacific Theater, the 75th since the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and the victories in Europe and the Pacific and the 73rd of the United States Armed Forces

Semper Fortis John Emmanuel Ramos Makati City, Philippines Grandson of Philippine Navy veteran PO2 Paterno Cueno, PN (Ret.)

(Honor by Hans Zimmer) (Platoon Swims) (Rendering Honors)

#hbo war #the pacific #battle of iwo jima #flags of our fathers

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