Nearly 80 years after his childhood friend was killed on Iwo Jima, a Monticello man continues his life's work to make sure the courageous tale of Boots Thomas is never forgotten.
February 23, 1945, Marines Raise the Flag on Mount Suribachi
Share This:
Photos: USMC
On February 23, 1945, World War II was continuing to rage across the globe. In Europe, brutal winter fighting continued as Germany was being squeezed from two sides: in the west by the Americans and British, who had recovered from the German offensive during the Battle of the Bulge, and in the east by the Russians.
In the Pacific, the Japanese were putting up fanatical resistance in the Philippines and elsewhere. And a tiny, just eight-square-mile volcanic speck of an island called Iwo Jima would be the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.