The Marines have launched an investigation into a potentially historic mistake involving one of the most famous images from World War II: the iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising photo.
The review was ordered after a pair of historians put forth evidence suggesting that the Marines misidentified one of the men immortalized in the photograph by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.
The Marine Corps. confirmed in a statement Tuesday it was "examining information provided by a private organization" related to the photograph Rosenthal took atop the mountain on Feb., 23, 1945.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself had ordered the Marines to track down the names of the six men depicted in the picture. They were identified as John Bradley, Harlon Block, Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley and Michael Strank.
But two historians contend the Marine identified as Sousley was actually a private named Harold Henry Schultz. They also maintain the man identified as Bradley was Sousley.
If true, that means Bradley wasn't in the photo. He died in 1994.
Bradley’s family has called the allegation “unbelievable.”
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