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For Sale: Original Iwo Jima Monument
AP/Newser ^ | 02/08/2013

Posted on 02/08/2013 12:17:04 PM PST by Responsibility2nd

(AP) – A long-forgotten piece of America's military history is going up for sale. The original smaller statue of the iconic raising of the US flag at Iwo Jima in 1945 is expected to fetch up to $1.8 million later this month at a New York auction dedicated to World War II artifacts. That such a statue even exists is news to all but the most ardent history buffs. Most Americans are familiar with Felix de Weldon's 1954 bronze version, the 32-foot-tall Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va. Less well-known is the 12-and-1/2-foot-tall statue created soon after the event.

De Weldon, a young sculptor serving as an artist in the Navy, became instantly transfixed by an Associated Press image of the Feb. 19, 1945, flag planting, which would earn photographer Joe Rosenthal a Pulitzer Prize and resonate around the world. He modeled a wax sculpture of the photo to present to the chiefs of staff, and Congress soon called for construction of a large statue. Completed in just three months, de Weldon's cast stone monument was erected in Washington, DC, in front of what is now the Federal Reserve Building on Constitution Avenue, and remained there until 1947. The government authorized a foundation for de Weldon to build a much larger flag-raising statue in bronze—the 32-foot Iwo Jima monument in Arlington—and the original was largely forgotten. Click for its full story.

 

 

(Excerpt) Read more at newser.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iwojima
1.8 Million?
1 posted on 02/08/2013 12:17:09 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: Responsibility2nd
Navy Secretary James Forrestal and General Holland M. Smith were wading ashore when the flag went up. Forrestal remarked to Smith: “Holland, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years.”
2 posted on 02/08/2013 12:59:00 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Now Obama’s gonna wonder how much he can get for the one in Arlington.


3 posted on 02/08/2013 1:03:03 PM PST by COBOL2Java (Fighting Obama without Boehner & McConnell is like going deer hunting without your accordion)
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To: Responsibility2nd

I can remember seeing a copy of this statue by the entrance of the veterans hospital in St. Albans or Jamaica,Queens, NYC, back in the 1950s.

I don’t know if it’s still there or not—or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, though I don’t think so.


4 posted on 02/08/2013 1:30:45 PM PST by Age of Reason
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To: Responsibility2nd

It’s the original statue of the fake flag raising.

There was no photo of the raising of a smaller flag on Iwo Jima when it was conquered. The photo and statues are of the raising of a larger flag to replace the original. That’s what is really forgotten.


5 posted on 02/08/2013 1:47:14 PM PST by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (REPEAL WASHINGTON! -- Islam Delenda Est! -- I Want Constantinople Back. -- Rumble thee forth.)
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To: UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide
There are photos of the first raising:


6 posted on 02/08/2013 1:53:25 PM PST by Bubba Ho-Tep ("More weight!"--Giles Corey)
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To: UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide

I think your right. And if I remember, the famous photo was taken after the Marines had already raised the flag. The photographer saw what they did - liked it - and had them do it again so’s he could take a picture.

I guess I could wiki this and see.


7 posted on 02/08/2013 1:53:29 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Hopefully it will be purchased & loaned to the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia.


8 posted on 02/08/2013 2:17:24 PM PST by Brian_Casserly ("He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.")
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To: Responsibility2nd

no, he did not stage it
they raised the second flag because the first one was too small

and Rosenthal and Genaust were there for the second one

Genaust was the first photographer of the first flag and the men who put it up


9 posted on 02/08/2013 2:50:31 PM PST by RaceBannon (When Chuck Norris goes to bed, he checks under it for Clint Eastwood!)
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To: RaceBannon

Genaust was the first photographer of the first flag and the men who put it up
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
History AND Lou Lowery told me Lowery was the ‘First Photographer’.

He was a Marine photographer/correspondent.

Sgt Genaust had the first motion pictures of it - and probably both.


10 posted on 02/08/2013 3:22:03 PM PST by xrmusn (6/98 "It is virtually impossible to clean the pond as long as the pigs are still crapping in it")
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To: Brian_Casserly

They should buy it themselves, if they want it.


11 posted on 02/08/2013 3:29:11 PM PST by rabidralph (http://www.cafepress.com/westernwis)
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To: xrmusn

yes, you’re right, I got the names mixed up :)


12 posted on 02/08/2013 3:33:31 PM PST by RaceBannon (When Chuck Norris goes to bed, he checks under it for Clint Eastwood!)
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep

I always thought Sgt. Stryker had the flag raised.

13 posted on 02/08/2013 3:49:47 PM PST by BerryDingle (I know how to deal with communists, I still wear their scars on my back from Hollywood-Ronald Reagan)
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To: RaceBannon

I figured that....
Why the answer was ‘informative’, not sardonic or sarcastic...<: <:


14 posted on 02/08/2013 4:04:19 PM PST by xrmusn (6/98 "It is virtually impossible to clean the pond as long as the pigs are still crapping in it")
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