Greg Williams, at MSNBC.com (2-20-05):

After four days of staggering losses in their mission to capture the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima, U.S. troops were in desperate need of a morale boost.

It came about 10:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 23, 1945, in the form of a small flag affixed to a heavy iron pipe.

Sgt. Lou Lowery, a photographer for Leatherneck magazine, documented the scene as a half-dozen fellow Marines raised their improvised flagpole at the rubble-strewn summit of Mount Suribachi.

It was the first time a U.S. flag had flown over Japanese territory.

Lowery captured the historic flag-raising in a series of black-and-white photographs. Moments later he was tumbling down the side of the mountain to avoid a Japanese grenade attack. Althoughhis camera was smashed, Lowery - and his film - survived.

But Lowery's photographs, like the dramatic event he had documented, were forever overshadowed by the iconic image of a second flag-raising two hours later.

As Lowery descended Suribachi, hoping to find another camera, he encountered other photographers on their way up the rugged slope. Among them were Marine cinematographer Sgt. Bill Genaust andstill photographer Joe Rosenthal of The Associated Press.

``I didn't have any thought that there would be a second flag-raising,'' Rosenthal recalled. ``Didn't know it until I got to the top.''

Detractors have claimed that Rosenthal orchestrated the second flag-raising and that his celebrated photograph had been posed. In their 1995 book, ``Shadow of Suribachi,'' historians ParkerAlbee Jr. and Keller Cushing Freeman dismantled those charges.

Soon after the first flag was raised, Albee and Freeman wrote, commanders decided it should be replaced with a much larger battle flag, one that could be seen more easily by fighting menacross the island and from ships offshore. The first flag was to be lowered as the larger flag was raised.