United States Marine Corps War Memorial
About
The United States Marine Corps War Memorial sits in the Northern-most part of the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. It was dedicated in 1954 "in honor and memory of the men of the United States Marine Corps who have given their lives to their country since November 10, 1775." This includes all who served, passed, and went missing while enrolled in the Marines since its’ founding two hundred and forty-five years ago.
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The memorial is a re-creation of a famous Pulitzer Prize winning photograph taken by Joseph Rosenthal called "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima," which was taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. The memorial depicts marines working together to raise the a pole with the American Flag on it.
The base of the memorial is a block made of imported Swedish granite. Atop it is the flag raising scene which was cast out of bronze. On the base is a golden ring inscribed with the names and dates of the principal engagements since the founding of the Marine Corps. The men themselves stand approximately thirty-two feet tall while the entire memorial is about seventy-eight feet. The flagpole the Marines are raising is about sixty feet tall and it flies an actual American Flag twenty-four seven, three hundred sixty-five days a year according to presidential proclamation made by John F. Kennedy in 1961. The Marine Corps Memorial is one of the few places where this is required.
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After seeing the iconic photograph, a sculptor by the name of Felix W. de Weldon, was moved by the scene and created a small-scale model of it. de Weldon, who at the time was enrolled in the U.S. Navy, then went on to make a life-sized design out of plaster along with architect Horace W. Peaslee. Together the two pitched the idea to congress though funds could not be spared during the war. Later in 1951, once the money had been raised, de Weldon met with the men who had raised the flag in Iwo Jima to gage accurate moldings of their faces. The plaster model sculpted was then casted for bronze which took over three years to make. Prior to fully assembling the memorial, it was trucked to Virginia from New York in pieces. For reference, largest piece weighed approximately twenty tons. In Washington D.C. the memorial was welded together and coated in preservatives.
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The Marine Corps Memorial in Virginia is not the only place where the photograph "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" was brought to life. Others include: Marine Corps Memorial on the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virgina, Iwo Jima Memorial on Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island, South Carolina, Pacific War Memorial on the Marine Corps Base in Hawaii, War Memorial at U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, Iwo Jima Monument at the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas, National Iwo Jima Memorial in Newington, Connecticut, Marine Corps Memorial in Fall River, Massachusetts, and more that are likely to be constructed in the future.
