This monument immortalizes the famous photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal during the American victory over Japan on the island of Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. One of the most iconic images of World War II, the photograph depicts 5 U.S. Marines and a Navy Corpsman raising the American Flag atop Mt. Suribachi. After the brutal 36-day battle, Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz, said that on Iwo Jima "Uncommon valor was a common virtue." Of the 27 Congressional Medals of Honor awarded to U.S. armed forces who fought on Iwo Jima, 22 were awarded to Marines, and to Navy personnel, 5 of them corpsmen. Fourteen medals were awarded posthumously. The U.S. suffered 26,038 casualties in the battle including 6,821 dead. Of the 22,785 Japanese soldiers defending Iwo Jima, only 1,083 survived. The airfields captured on Iwo Jima served as vital assets to the American war effort, providing emergency bases for B-29 bombers returning from missions over Japan. The monument captures the emotional impact of the event, and honors the courage and sacrifice made by the participating U.S. Marine and Naval forces.
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This monument was crafted by Felix de Weldon, sculptor of the national Iwo Jima Memorial statue in Arlington, Virginia. De Weldon
created two larger than life-sized monuments to travel with the 7th War Bond Tour of 1945. The third and last cast from the original mold was commissioned in 1964 by Cape Coral developers, the Rosen Brothers, and dedicated in 1965. Originally located at Tarpon Point's Rose Garden, this monument served as a promotional tool to drive real estate sales in Cape Coral during the 1960s. In the 1970s, the Rosen Brothers fell into bankruptcy and the Rose Garden was abandoned. Many of the exhibits and gardens were later vandalized and damaged by neglect. In 1980, Michael Geml, Vice President of North First Bank hired de Weldon to restore and move the monument to the bank's Cape Coral property where it stood until 1997. The monument was restored a second time by the Lee County Marine Corps League Detachment following its relocation to ECO Park Preserve in 1997. A third major restoration was completed in 2011. A source of pride for Cape Coral, this monument is the only one of de Weldon's originals in civilian possession.
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