U.S. Marines raised an American flag on the Japanese island’s highest peak exactly 80 years ago. But the fighting, some of the deadliest of World War II, would rage on for a month. In Photos U.S.

Editor’s note: Feb. 19, 2025, marks the 80th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Iwo Jima. In February 2020, Military Times interviewed Marine Corps veteran and Iwo Jima survivor Don Harris.

On the morning of February 19, 1945, the first wave of United States Marines landed on the island of Iwo Jima — commencing 36 long, perilous days of gruesome warfare, and one of the most consequential ...

On March 3, 1945, Jack Williams, 21, of Harrison was ashore on Iwo Jima, Japan, tending to wounded Marines who were engaged in a fierce battle to dislodge Japanese forces from the island. As a Navy ...