US Marine Corps War Memorial

This guide to the US Marine Corps War Memorial traces the accidental photograph Joe Rosenthal took atop Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945, and the uneasy fame it brought the three survivors among the men in it, including Private First Class Ira Hayes. It follows sculptor Felix de Weldon's decade spent turning the image into the thirty-two-foot bronze in front of you. The Marine Corps toured Hayes and the other two survivors through thirty-two cities to sell war bonds.