This photo does indeed depict U.S. servicemen raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi after capturing it during the Battle of Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945. However, that version of events obscures the fact that this was not the first, but actually the second, flag raising atop that hill that day, in addition to the fact that this flag raising did not mark the end of this historic battle, which actually carried on for another month and claimed the lives of three of the men in the photo over the next few days.
Life is not a Spectator Sport 