A misidentified Marine in iconic Iwo Jima Photo
I heard a few months ago that there was an investigation into the identification of one of the Marines in the iconic photo taken on top of Mount Surabachi over the battle of Iwo Jima. I figured that I’d wait until the investigation was ended and it looks like, sure enough, one of the Marines was misidentified, according to CNN;
The investigation concluded that Navy Pharmacist’s Mate 2nd Class John Bradley was not in the photograph. Instead, the Marine Corps investigation identified the man who was in the photo: Private 1st Class Harold Schultz, from Detroit, Michigan.
Schultz never spoke publicly about being in the photo before he died in 1995.
According to Schultz’ stepdaughter, Dezreen MacDowell, remembers that he mentioned it once, from USAToday;
MacDowell now she recalls he said he was one of the flag raisers over dinner in the early 1990s when they were discussing the war in the Pacific.
“Harold, you are a hero,” she said she told him. “Not really. I was a Marine,” he said.
She described him as quiet and self-effacing.
John Bradley’s son says that his father had never made the claim that he was one of the Marines in the photo. From ABC News;
Bradley said that until he died in 1994, his father never spoke about his experiences on Iwo Jima, always changing the subject when he would ask him about what he went through.
“My father never independently said he was in that photo,” Bradley said. “He was lying in a hospital bed with post-traumatic stress after one of the worst battles in the history of the United States and the Marines approached him and said here you are in a photo, we’ve determined you’re in a photo. Then he finds himself in the Oval Office and the president is telling him he’s in a photo.”
Category: Historical
Wow. Just wow. What to say? Have to absorb this for a time.
Word.
And how many posers have stakes this claim?
Master Chief, you nailed it with “Wow.” That was my first response and like you, I’m still trying to think this through. This is possibly the most infamous case of Stolen Valor any of us has ever been exposed to and from the other comments here I’m seeing the reactions here that mirror mine: Please, please, say it ain’t so.
My immediate reaction is to look for a rationale and that brought to mind the constant, eager searches by the services during WWII for articulate and photogenic heroes to use in the bond drives. Bradley was both and it’s easy to see the public affairs honchos wanting him on the team badly enough to smother any protests he might have made that the record was not accurate.
His post-war behavior would support that sort of scenario; he studiously avoided the media and refused to talk to anyone about his wartime experiences. Even his family were unaware until after his death that he’d received the Navy Cross for action at the base of Mt. Suribachi. As others have said here, the guy was a genuine badass so big effing deal whether or not he was actually in that iconic photo.
I’m getting way too tired of this liberal trend in our current government to topple our heroes and destroy our faith in our fathers. We have enough tax money laying around to fund this kind of purposeless research? And of course it’s the liberal media gleefully jumping on the story, eager once again to help destroy another symbol of American superiority.
Well, I say, FUCK THEM ALL!
Poetrooper: Thanks very much for the instant two pay grade promotion. I retired as an HMC(E7). Hmmm, maybe you know something I don’t? I better contact BCNR to see if I actually was an HMCM. Think of the back pay. Bwhaaa.
And like you, I’m tired of the gutless wonders who are ‘journalists’ desperately attempting to topple an American icon … A man who went into harm’s way and performed with honor and distinction. I guess they can cut another notch on their belt and can smugly speak of their honorable work in outing this Corpsman. I think the vast majority of the ‘journalists’ in America are Gutless Wonders who have little clue of sacrifice, but are quite eager to hold others to a standard they themselves will never attain. They are quite content to congratulate themselves, probably in private, on their toppling of this man. Fuck ’em.
And, 3/17, I’m also trying desperately to wrap my mind around this. In reading Flags of Our Fathers, I was concerned by John Bradley’s decades-long refusal to speak of the event, even to his family. He must have been consumed by guilt. I sensed something was amiss but attributed it to his possibly being a very private person or, just maybe, he was suffering from PTS and talking of the event would put him in a bad place. I’ll never understand this but can’t bring myself to fully condemn the man. Man, if he had just spoken up from day one and stated he was not a participant he would still have been considered a genuine hard as nails badass. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Jeez, I don’t get it.
I also find it ironic and troubling that our government officials, who lie to the American public on a daily basis, find it necessary to reveal the truth regarding this matter 70 years after the fact. I find them to be self-serving butt wipes who justify their existence by action such as this. Some things I don’t need to know. Fuck them, too.
Afuckingmen….And who ever heard of post traumatic stress 70 years ago?
“Combat fatigue” or “shell shock”
Warrior0369: Right. Psychologically traumatized military personnel (and civilians)during prior conflicts suffered the same as those today. Only the names have changed. PTS/Shell Shock/Combat Fatigue/Etc. They share much in common except the name. Perhaps there are various names for the condition depending on proximity to the event. I don’t know. It was often considered evidence of cowardice during past wars. Remember the (in)famous incident of Patton slapping a soldier who was in a hospital/BAS suffering from the condition? Today symptoms can develop decades after suffering the trauma. I’m sure the same was true in past conflicts.
Good to see the error rectified.
Sad to see that it took 71 years to do so, and that it wasn’t done until after all involved were dead.
It is good to always remember:
1) All humans make mistakes
2) It is always good to acknowledge and attempt to rectify our mistakes.
We can lament that mistakes are made, and when made they can hurt others. We should remember that when hurt by others’ mistakes, it is not always intentional.
Glad to see the attempt to rectify the mistake.
I can see where after just going through HELL literally, he didn’t want to talk about it! Classic answer tho, No I am not a hero, just a Marine…..may he rest in peace in the arms of the Lord!
dammit….the record should be correct, but dammit anyway.
There is, after all, an extra hand in the statue.
Didn’t Daniel Bernath take credit for that photo?
I dunno. Better ask Brian Williams. After all, he was there, wasn’t he?
Which is not to say that PO Bradley wasn’t a serious badass in his own right.
Read his Navy Cross citation to remove any doubt.
Absolutely and I had the pleasure of meeting him. Of course, that doesn’t mean I know him. It’s not just the mistaken ID, but the legacy…the symbol of the inseparable nature of the Marines and their Corpsmen. That moment, the picture, the sculpture. I’m just sappy about some things.
IDC SARC,
Marines and Corpsmen forged that bond on far more than the one occasion of a flag raising. I am confident that nothing can shake or denigrate that bond.
The Tomb of the Unknowns is no less Hallowed Ground for the subsequent identification of one of them. In the decades to come, we may finally identify all of them. I am confident that the 3rd Infantry Regiment will be standing its post at the Tomb nevertheless.
Sometimes, the reality we make from our symbols is more important, more lasting, than anything from the reality of hindsight.
As a retired Marine I could give 2 sh!ts if that’s Doc Bradley in that photo or not…the man was a certifiable BADASS. That battle makes Hell itself look like the lines I stood in for chow. The book his son wrote…epic. A must read if you’ve never read it.
Am I glad history got corrected….kinda…at what point do we just let dead dogs lie though?
I am very glad to read your response. I had a similar reaction. Those Marines, as I understand it, represent the USMC, past present and future. Not one is identifiable by someone who merely looks at the iconic photo. None one has his face showing. But worldwide, that photo is recognized as the USMC on Iwo Jima, if not atop Mount Suribachi For my money, their names were never needed.
“For my money, their names were never needed”. Well said, 2/17. It’s the image, not the individual.
Sure. “At this point, what difference does it make?”
would you say that if it was your dad left off?
Concerning the Flag raising on Iwo, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal declared, “This means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.” The book, Flags of Our Fathers, I highly recommend. It appears to be factual in all (at that time) aspects of the battle and the back stories of those participating in the Flag raising. The back story of each participant is examined prior to, during and after the Flag raising.
Concerning Brian Williams yes, yes he was there, going cave to cave to rout Japanese who refused to surrender. He later shielded Hillary Clinton as she came under sniper fire in Bosnia. For each action he was awarded the coveted ‘I’m a Dufus Poser’ award, the highest honor that can be bestowed to a lying media SoS.
To me, personally, I’m less concerned with the identity of the participants than with the heroic representation of the Marine Corps. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz offered the tribute, “Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.” I am humbled by men and women such as this.
Semper Fidelis
These gentlemen remind me of my father. Not that my dad was a big hero or anything. Just that he refused to ever talk about what he went through in the war.
He volunteered as a 34 year old right after Pearl Harbor. Wanted to be in the infantry, but he said his eyes were too bad. So he ended up in combat ordnance.
He landed at Oran, Algeria in November 1942 and didn’t go home until November 1945. In the middle, he was in the North African, Sicilian, and Italian campaigns.
Survived Monte Cassino and liberated Rome.
Monte Cassino was the only one he talked about. “That was rough!” Pretty big talker, huh?
I’m a Navy guy and don’t want to insult any of my Army brothers and sisters, but when I was being a bum in my 20s, he always told me, “Join the military! Get a trade! Do something with your life! But whatever you do, DON’T JOIN THE ARMY!”
I guess he earned the right to say that…in spades.
Anyway, shipmate, whether you raised the flag on Iwo Jima or not matters not one whit to me. You’re a hero in my book. Anyone who could survive Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Anzio, yes, Monte Cassino will always have my undying respect.
I’ve read the book, flags of our fathers. I have the utmost respect for John Bradley,and all marines who assaulted those islands in the Pacific during WWII.
I realize that John Bradley never wanted to talk about that experience and rightfully so. The problem I’m having is his silence. According to the book “Flags of our Fathers” on the anniversary of the flag raising he avoided calls to his home for comments. Why not end the whole thing and just say “I wasn’t part of the flag raising”
In no way am I minalizing or calling out the legacy of John Bradley I’m just trying to wrap my brain around it!
Yep. I’ve got the same issue.
In a way I think that photo wrecked havov on those who were constantly reminded of the hell they went through. It would also explain why Bradley wanted nothing to do with it. I Imagine, like the others he was told simply to STFU and go on the tour.
It probably ate him up knowing there was a mix up and he got the grand treatment for someone elses picture. Anyone who went on patrol to secure the top of that hill could have ended up in that photo. It was nothing more than a working party tasked with doing colors.
The media and the government simply jumped on the opurtunity to use it to sell bonds.
Every Marine and Sailor who fought on that Island had big brass ones.
Tie this story to the recent POTUS expedition to Japan and final leg of a sold-out worldwide “Apology Tour”. I also go along with JAOD’s assessment concerning Mr. Bradley’s conduct. I’ll also ad this, the left is rewriting history because they can and nobody is apparently able to shut them down.
While I am glad the history of this is now correct, it makes little difference to me. The photo, which became the monument means so much more to me than the individuals who are in it. The raising of our flag at that place and at that time, symbolizes so much more of America than I can express in words. I still thank God for the men of that generation who fought the world over to keep this country free.
So I guess all those generations of Marines were lied to at boot camp when they read about USMC history? How disappointing.