There were two flags raised by the Marines on Mt Suribachi.  The one
in the famous photo and the one raised before that one.  I know what
happened to the famous one, it wsa torn to shreads by the weather as
the fighting raged below...at least that's what happened to it
according to the book Flags of Our Fathers.  What happened to the
first, not so famous flag and where is it now?

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Request for Question Clarification by skermit-ga on 12 Nov 2002 19:27 PST

Hello,

I'm posting this as a clarification because I'm not sure if you'll
accept this as an answer. 7 years ago a book was written called
"Shadow of Suribachi: Raising the Flags on Iwo Jima" and it discusses
the debate and controversy of the two flags being raised, and the
pictures that were used to record the event. The link to buy it is
below. I'm sure that it would have the answer in this 232 page book,
but I'm unable to find it on the web. Please let me know if this
answer is acceptable. Thanks.


Additional Links:

"Shadow of Suribachi: Raising the Flags on Iwo Jima" on amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0275950638/qid=1037157803/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-6275437-2624108?v=glance&s=books&n=507846


skermit-ga

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Clarification of Question by duuuud4-ga on 12 Nov 2002 19:41 PST

Skermit,
  I'm new to google so bear with me.  Thanks for the website but I
would like a more sophisticated answer.  I don't have the time or
inclinatin to look up this book and get the answer...that's what I was
hoping you were going to do.  Please provide a more complete answer. 
Thanks
duuud4

Hello,

This is a great question. Being a former Marine of 9 years (very
recent I might add), I started racking my brain. I didn't seem to
recall the first one being destroyed. My intuition payed off. The flag
was indeed damaged severely, but it was saved. In fact both flags were
saved and reside together. You will find both flags on display at the
Marine Corps Museum in Washington.(D.C.)

Here is a Google cached link to the official U.S. Marine Corps site,
with a description of the Marine Corps museum display:

Marine Corps Museum Iwo Jima flag reference
http://www.usmc.mil/historical.nsf/504b783c5a9b2565852566a400567f79/940994a8d830502b8525664e00518f00?OpenDocument


Please read the following site, that makes mention of the same book
that you have read, and credits it's writings with the myth :

Iwo Jima Flags
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/flagfamo.html

Excerpt from site above
"Both of the Iwo Jima Flags raised in Feb. of 1945 by the Easy Co of
the 28th Marine Rgt. are in the U.S.M.C. Museum Washington Navy Yard.
They were both recently conserved by the noted textile conservator
Fonda Thompson."


A couple more sources to confirm our findings:

Iwo Jima Bond
http://www.iwojima.com/bond/

Let's Go Washington
http://www.letsgo.com/DC/05-museums-109

To help with this answer I searched Google for:

marine corps museum "iwo jima" flags
://www.google.com/search?q=marine+corps+museum+%22iwo+jima%22+flags


Thanks for the great history trip and Semper Fi!
SgtCory (USMC Sgt)

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Clarification of Answer by sgtcory-ga on 12 Nov 2002 20:02 PST

Sorry about the official USMC link. It should have been this :

http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:AGN8i_JvFTYC:www.usmc.mil/historical.nsf/504b783c5a9b2565852566a400567f79/940994a8d830502b8525664e00518f00%3FOpenDocument+marine+corps+museum+%22iwo+jima%22+flags&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Thanks again!
SgtCory