<P> Rosenthal put his Speed Graphic camera on the ground (set to 1 / 400 sec shutter speed, with the f - stop between 8 and 11 and Agfa film) so he could pile rocks to stand on for a better vantage point . In doing so, he nearly missed the shot . The Marines began raising the flag . Realizing he was about to miss the action, Rosenthal quickly swung his camera up and snapped the photograph without using the viewfinder . Ten years after the flag - raising, Rosenthal wrote: </P> <P> Out of the corner of my eye, I had seen the men start the flag up . I swung my camera and shot the scene . That is how the picture was taken, and when you take a picture like that, you don't come away saying you got a great shot . You don't know . </P> <P> Sergeant Genaust, who was standing almost shoulder - to - shoulder with Rosenthal about three feet away, was shooting motion - picture film during the second flag - raising . His film captures the second event at an almost - identical angle to Rosenthal's shot . Of the six flag - raisers in the picture--Ira Hayes, Harold Schultz (identified in June 2016), Michael Strank, Franklin Sousley, Rene Gagnon, and Harlon Block--only Hayes, Gagnon, and Schultz (Navy corpsman John Bradley was incorrectly identified in the Rosenthal flag - raising photo) survived the battle . Strank and Block were killed on March 1, six days after the flag - raising, Strank by a shell, possibly fired from an offshore American destroyer and Block a few hours later by a mortar round . Sousley was shot and killed by a Japanese sniper on March 21, a few days before the island was declared secure . </P> <P> Following the flag - raising, Rosenthal sent his film to Guam to be developed and printed . George Tjaden of Hendricks, Minnesota, was likely the technician who printed it . Upon seeing it, Associated Press (AP) photograph editor John Bodkin exclaimed "Here's one for all time!" and immediately transmitted the image to the AP headquarters in New York City at 7: 00 am, Eastern War Time . The photograph was quickly picked up off the wire by hundreds of newspapers . It "was distributed by Associated Press within seventeen and one - half hours after Rosenthal shot it--an astonishingly fast turnaround time in those days ." </P>

Why did they raise the flag on iwo jima