us_ch9_webquest-strank

=**CORRECT!!! MICHAEL STRANK**=

Strank was a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He was photographed raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The leader of the group in the famous picture was Strank, who got the order to climb Mt. Suribachi to lay telephone wire. Accompanying him were Corporal Harlon Block, Pfc Ira Hayes and Pfc Franklin Sousley. About halfway up the mountain, they were joined by Pfc Rene Gagnon, who was carrying a larger flag to the summit to replace the smaller one which had been raised earlier in the day. Upon reaching the summit, Strank took the flag from Gagnon, and explained to Lieutenant Harold Schrier that "Colonel Johnson wants this big flag run up high so every son of a gun on this whole cruddy island can see it." Strank, along with his aforementioned men and Navy Corpsman John Bradley (who was already on the summit of Mt. Suribachi), raised the second flag. Strank's father moved to America long before the war from Czechoslovakia to work the the Franklin Borough steel mills. Strank was killed accidently by friendly fire from an offshore ship as the U.S. was planning another attack on the Japanese. Strank is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

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