Stopped by the Marine Corps Memorial again on my way into DC this morning. I uploaded another photo of it one week ago today. So many ways to capture this... I could hang out there all day.
I wanted to add that I've a friend who was at Iwo Jima. It was always light because they used artificial lights to fight through the night. The first wave was mostly killed on the beach. He didn't see a single Japanese because they were hidden, but their fire power certainly was not. He remembers the flag going up and the men cheering, though it went up in the midst of great battle. He said from where he stood, the flag looked like a little speck in the sky, but he knew what it was and what it meant. He's still living. He was a marine. This past weekend, we met a veteran from Normandy in a ghost town in NM, of all places, where he was born.
@cejaanderson Love your additional comment re: your Iwo Jima friend and story. It sends chills up my spine. As for me, I was not a Marine. My dad was and when I asked him for advice about whether to sign up during the Vietnam War, he was insistent that I stay in school. I would have joined if he had advised me to. He is laid to rest at Arlington National just a short distance from this monument so it now has extra meaning indeed.
Dramatic image great in B&W.