USMC War Memorial

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The Marine Corps War Memorial is a military memorial statue located near the Arlington National Cemetery in Rosslyn, Virginia, United States. The memorial is dedicated to all personnel of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) who have died in the defense of their country since 1775.

The bronze statue depicts the raising of the American flag atop Mount Suribachi at the southern tip of the island of Iwo Jima on February 23 1945 during the Battle of Iwo Jima. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" by war photographer Joe Rosenthal. Felix W. de Weldon, a sculptor who was serving with the U.S. Navy was inspired to reproduce the photograph as a model and later a life-sized statue. The statue itself was cast in 108 pieces at the Bedi-Rassy Art Foundry Brooklyn, New York, taking some three years to complete. The entire $850,000 cost of the memorial was donated. It is currently managed by the National Park Service within George Washington Memorial Parkway.

In 1951, work commenced on creating a cast bronze memorial based on the statue, with the figures 10 metres (32 feet) tall and the flagpole 20 metres (60 feet) long. The granite base of the memorial bears two inscriptions:

• "In honor and in memory of the men of the United States Marine Corps who have given their lives to their country since November 10, 1775."
• "Uncommon Valor was a Common Virtue." — a tribute by Admiral Chester Nimitz to the fighting men on Iwo Jima.

The location and date of every major Marine Corps engagement up to the present is enscribed around the base of the memorial. It is sometimes said that there is enough room left to record the Marine Corps' achievements for the next millennium.

The memorial was officially dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on November 10 1954, the 179th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued a proclamation that a U.S. Flag should fly from the memorial 24 hours a day — one of the few official sites where this is permitted.

The original plaster working model of the statue currently stands in Harlingen, Texas at the Marine Military Academy, a private Marine Corps-inspired youth military academy. The Academy is also the final resting place of PFC Harlon Block, USMC, who was killed in action at Iwo Jima, and is one of the Marines immortalized in the iconic image.

There is a legend that if you look close enough at the hands of the men on the statue, then from a certain angle, it appears that there is a thirteenth hand. While many dismiss this as nonsense, others firmly believe that the sculptor included the hand in the design to represent the hand of God.

The National Iwo Jima Memorial in Newington, Connecticut uses a similar design and is dedicated to 6,821 men who died in the battle.

See also

Iron Mike

External links

• [National Park Service: USMC War Memorial]
• [A short film of the Iwo Jima Memorial]
• [Marine Military Academy Iwo Jima monument]

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