DETROIT – Did you know that one of the six people in one of the most famous photographs of all time was a Detroiter? It’s true.
On this day in 1945, six United States Marines raised the U.S. Flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the second flag being placed might be one of the most iconic photos ever taken.
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Three of the men would be killed as the battle continued. The surviving three returned home as heroes. Kind of. Rosenthal didn’t know the names of the Marines and most of their faces are obscured in the photo, so it was difficult to figure out who these men were. Only one survivor was correctly identified at the time, Pfc. Ira Hayes.
One of the survivors, Harold Schultz, was misidentified in the photo as John Bradley until 2016. Schultz died in 1995, more than two decades before he was officially recognized as being a part of the iconic photograph. Most of his body was blocked from the camera by Franklin Sousley.
Schultz was born Jan. 28, 1925 in Detroit. If there was a competition for the most Detroit Detroiter, Schultz would easily make top 10. He grew up on the city’s southwest side, near the Rouge Plant, where his father worked. His mother was a machine operator at a different plant.
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Schultz graduated from Southwestern High School and enlisted at Fort Wayne in 1943. On this day. 79 years ago, he took part in the raising of both flags on Iwo Jima.
Bradley, for what its worth, was also a part of the team that raised the first flag on Iwo Jima. It’s not like he was a scam artist.
The Battle of Iwo Jima would continue for another month, ending on March 26. Schultz was wounded on March 13 and was honorably discharged. He spent the rest of his life working quietly for the Post Office.
Schultz chose to never speak publicly about being one of the flag-raisers, but his daughter claimed he told her once and never mentioned it again. He died of a heart attack on May 16, 1995.
Schultz received a Purple Heart, a Combat Action Ribbon, a Navy Presidential Unit Citation, a American Campaign Medal, a World War II Victory Medal and a Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one bronze star.
Much of what we know about Schultz came from Bill Ivory, a Vietnam Veteran from Detroit, who did significant research into him and his family after learning about the misidentification being corrected. You can read his story here.