According to recent research, the men pictured in the photograph are: Harlon Block, Harold Keller, Ira Hayes, Harold Schultz, Franklin Sousley and Michael Strank. Rosenthal quickly photographed the Marines using his Speed Graphic camera, without the aid of a viewfinder. At the time, he did not realize the significance of the photograph.
Tragically, Block, Sousley and Strank were later killed in action during the battle. However, the three surviving servicemen returned home to a hero's welcome and immediately toured across the U.S. in support of the Seventh War Loan (bonds issued by the government to finance war operations). According to Robert S. Burrell in his book "The Ghosts of Iwo Jima" (Texas A&M University Press, 2006), the Seventh War Loan, with support from the touring Iwo Jima survivors, raised a record-breaking $26 billion for the war effort.
Burrell also explains that after the battle, "the [Marine] Corps mistakenly identified one of the dead Marines in the photo… Harlon Block had been misidentified as Hank Hanson." This was not the only mistaken identity, however. In October 2019, evidence brought forward by historians identified Harold Keller as the figure at the far side of the flagpole, previously believed to have been Rene Gagnon.
By the end of World War II, Rosenthal's photograph had become famous worldwide. The photograph, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945, served as inspiration for the United States Marine Corps War Memorial, in Arlington Ridge Park, Virginia. The memorial was unveiled on Nov. 10, 1954, in the presence of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy proclaimed that the U.S. flag should fly over the memorial 24 hours a day.
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