Marines looking into claims of mistaken ID in Iwo Jima flag photo (UPDATE 5/4)

quote:

---

Bradley published the book about the events surrounding the photo in 2000. Titled “Flags of Our Fathers,” it was later made into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood. But it was only after his father, John Bradley, died in 1994 and after the Marine Corps received a set of previously unreleased photos in 2010 that he realized that his father had been talking about being a part of the first flag-raising but not the second.

“We had no photographic evidence that he was in the first flag-raising and then it comes out 70 years later [after] the Marine [Corps] sits on these photos … and it turns [out] he was in the first [flag-raising],” Bradley said in an interview Tuesday with The Washington Post. “And then I realize he was talking about the first flag-raising,” Bradley said.

“I was never so excited that my father raised the flag on Iwo Jima, and I’m not so disappointed that he’s not in the second photo,” Bradley said. “I was trying to write a factual book about the heroes of Iwo Jima.”

---

quote:

---

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Marine Corps has begun investigating whether it mistakenly identified one of the men shown raising the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima in one of the iconic images of World War II after two amateur history buffs began raising questions about the picture

The Marines announced its inquiry more than a year after Eric Krelle, of Omaha, Nebraska, and Stephen Foley, of Wexford, Ireland, began raising doubts about the identity of one man. In November 2014, the Omaha World-Herald published an extensive story about their claims and Saturday was the first to report the Marines were looking into the matter.

---

quote:

---

After examining the famous photo along with other pictures taken that day of the men, they concluded that the man identified as Sousley was actually Harold Henry Schultz, a private first class from Detroit. Schultz died in 1995. They also contend that the figure initially identified as Bradley was Sousley, which if true means Bradley wasn't in the photo.

Krelle declined to comment on the Marine's investigation, telling the World-Herald he had signed a confidentiality agreement with a third party. A message left by the AP at a phone number listed to Krelle wasn't immediately returned.

In 2014, Krelle had told the newspaper, "People can hold onto what they have always known in the past. But to me, the photos are the truth."

Discrepancies identified by Krelle and Foley included:

Bradley wore uncuffed pants in the famous photo but other pictures shot that day shows in him tightly cuffed pants.

The bill of a cap is visible beneath the helmet in the flag-raising picture but not in other images of Bradley made that day.

The man identified as Bradley is wearing a cartridge belt with ammunition pouches, and a pair of wire cutters hangs off the belt. But as a Navy corpsman, Bradley would typically be armed with a sidearm, not an M-1 rifle, and he'd have no need for wire cutters. Other photos that day show him wearing what appears to be a pistol belt with no ammo pouches.

Bradley's son, James Bradley, wrote a best-selling book about the flag raisers, "Flags of Our Fathers," which was later made into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood.

---