2017 U.S. Flag Forever Stamps — Coil Format, First-Class Postage

Issue facts

Issued: January 27, 2017
First Day City: Norcross, GA
Type of Stamp: First Class
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America
Method: Offset, Microprint

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima

Joe Rosenthal's photograph has been stirring American feeling for more than seventy years — six Marines, straining against the wind, putting the flag up on Mount Suribachi.

Suribachi was a Japanese position widely considered impossible to take. First Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier volunteered anyway and led a 40-man patrol up the mountain, moving unnoticed while the Japanese were occupied with Allied bombardment.

Rosenthal nearly missed the shot. He was looking for a better position when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the men start the flag up; he swung the camera and fired. As he later said, you do not know at the time that you have taken a great picture.

The troops below saw the flag go up, and the effect on morale was immediate enough to help turn the battle. The image became one of the most reproduced in American history and was put to work on a war bond poster. What it showed the country was the thing itself: endurance, character, and reason to believe in a better outcome.

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