The iconic photograph, taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press, of Marines raising the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945 is now a symbol of American bravery and resolve.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The photograph’s connection to Dayton is brief for one man and long-inspiring for another.
Franklin R. Sousley, second from left in the famous photo, was a 19-year-old from Hilltop, Ky., who found a job at Dayton’s Frigidaire plant after graduating high school. At the time, the plant was making machine guns and airplane propellers for the war effort. He enlisted with the Marines on Jan. 5, 1944, the day his “greetings” telegram arrived.
Sousley, a private first class who served in E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, during the war, was cut down by a Japanese sniper less than a month after the flag raising.
Credit: Lisa Powell
Credit: Lisa Powell
Charles Baker grew up on a farm in Jefferson Township and was in F Company at Iwo Jima.
Baker, thinking he would be drafted after he finished high school anyway, doubled up as a junior and was only a half credit short of graduation when he was drafted in 1944.
He didn’t know Sousley, but on the afternoon of the flag planting, F Company took over guarding the flag.
Baker, a private who survived 36 days on Iwo Jima, recalled in 2012, “I stayed under the flag in the machine gun position.”
Although the island measured only five miles by 2½ miles, it was heavily fortified by the Japanese, who Baker said wiped out 230 of the 257 men in his company.
Baker returned home, got married and eventually worked for Standard Register for 40 years.
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