Entertainment, Books - Navy Times

The picture that told a thousand stories

Ed Terella remembers that day in vivid detail, even though it happened in 1945. The young Marine private had been on Iwo Jima just four days when he and thousands of other Marines and sailors saw a flag go up on Mount Suribachi, the highest point on the volcanic island.

"We all hooted and hollered; it was an incredible moment and I'll always remember it even though it happened over 60 years ago," Terella said.

That memory and many others came flooding back to the 81-year-old former radioman as he looked through the pages of a new book, "Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue: Iwo Jima and the Photograph That Captured America" by Hal Buell.

Until recent years, not many people outside those who were there knew that two flag-raisings took place on that Feb. 23, roughly four hours apart. Fewer still realize that the immortal picture taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal is actually of the second U.S. flag to be raised over the Japanese island.

Still, as fate would have it, that picture would capture the country's imagination when it was published a few days later and propel the surviving sailor and Marines in the image to instant stardom -- while those who raised the first flag fell into obscurity.

The photo won Rosenthal and The Associated Press the Pulitzer Prize that year and eventually inspired the statue that became the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va.

"It symbolizes everything about the Marine Corps and how they took that island," Buell said. "Those men working to raise that flag did it through teamwork, and that's how that island was taken, too."

The book puts both flag-raisings into perspective by placing the story of the photograph against the background of the battle.

The book doesn't just tell the story -- it shows the story through hundreds of photos taken by Rosenthal and other Marine and civilian photographers during the monthlong battle that took the lives of 7,000 U.S. Marines and sailors and 22,000 Japanese. Another 21,000 were wounded on both sides.

The book contains a bonus, a 20-minute DVD documentary produced by Lou Reda Productions in Easton, Pa.

The film, produced exclusively for inclusion in the book, uses outstanding movie footage and still images to help weave the story told by Marines who fought the battle, as well as Rosenthal and others who documented it.

Though the movie and book cover much of the same ground, they're meant to be complementary, Buell said.

And, in the end, the book is an excellent read made even better by the accompanying film. The story will prove a stellar addition to any World War II or Marine Corps history library.

It will also appeal to those interested in the history of photography and the impact that photography had on the American war effort.

"Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue" shows the circumstances that led a single image to symbolize not only that epic battle, but the entire American effort during World War II.

‘Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue: Iwo Jima and the Photograph That Captured America.’ By Hal Buell. Berkley Publishing Group. 258 pages. $28.95.