February 23, 1945: During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S.
Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th
Regiment of the 5th Division took the crest of Mount Suribachi,
the island’s highest peak and most strategic position, and raised
the U.S. flag.

Marine photographer Louis Lowery, who was with them, recorded
the event. Americans fighting for control of Suribachi’s slopes
cheered the raising of the flag.

Several hours later, more Marines headed up to the crest with a
larger flag. Joe Rosenthal, a photographer with the Associated
Press, met them along the way and recorded the raising of the
second flag along with a Marine still photographer and a motion-
picture cameraman.

By March 3, U.S. forces controlled all three airfields on the island,
and on March 26 the last Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima were
wiped out. Only 200 of the original 22,000 Japanese defenders
were captured alive. More than 6,000 Americans died taking Iwo
Jima, and some 17,000 were wounded.

The second Iwo Jima flag on display in the National Museum 
of the Marine Corps.

The first U.S. flag raised on Mount Suribachi. 

President Harry Truman, left, is presented with a bronze
statue by sculptor Felix de Weldon, center, and Associated
Press photographer Joe Rosenthal at the White House in Washington on June 4, 1945.

Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima as it looks today.

Lt. Edward Henry (“Butch”) O’Hare took off from the aircraft
carrier Lexington in a raid against the Japanese position at
Rabaul and minutes later became America’s first WWII flying
ace, shooting down five enemy bombers.

    
President Franklin D. Roosevelt congratulates Lieutenant
(j.g.) Edward H. O’Hare, United States Navy, on being
presented the Medal of Honor (below) at the White
House, Washington, D.C., 21 April 1942.         
       

Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry O’Hare
(March 13, 1914 – November 26, 1943

O’Hare went missing in action on November 26, 1943, and
was declared dead a year later. His widow Rita received
her husband’s posthumous decorations, a Purple Heart
and the Navy Cross on November 26, 1944.       
 

HONOLULU (AP) — Warren ‘Red’ Upton, the oldest living
survivor of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and
the last remaining survivor of the USS Utah, has died. He
was 105. 

Kathleen Farley, of the California state chair of the Sons
and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors said Upton died
Wednesday at a hospital in Los Gatos, California, after
suffering a bout of pneumonia.

The Utah, a battleship, was moored at Pearl Harbor when
Japanese planes began bombing the Hawaii naval base 
in the early hours of Dec. 7, 1941, the attack propelled
the U.S. into World War II.

At 2:10 p.m. on December 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy Avenger
torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 took off from the Ft.
Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-
hour training mission.

After having completed their objective, the flight was to go
due east for an additional 67 miles, then turn north for 73
miles, and back to the air station after that, totaling a
distance of 120 miles. They never returned.

Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron,
who had been flying in the area for more than six months,
reported that his compass and backup compass had failed
and that his position was unknown.

After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers,
a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was
heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare
to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.

The Naval School was founded in Annapolis, Maryland in the wake
of a shocking scandal at sea on this day in history, Oct. 10, 1845.

The renowned military institute was renamed the U.S. Naval
Academy in 1850.

The school was established following the discovery of a planned
mutiny on the Atlantic Ocean aboard U.S. Navy brig Somers. 

U.S. Naval Academy in 1853.

The 17th U.S. Secretary of the Navy
(1845 – 1846)

Civil War hero Admiral David Dixon Porter
became superintendent in 1865.

USS Constitution and Santee tied up in the background.
Other ships not identified.