A Picture
This is a picture of Pete Lacore paying his
respects to Franklin Sousley at his burial site
in Hilltop, Kentucky.
Franklin, who died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19, was
one of the five Marines and the one Navy Hospital
Corpsman, (John Bradley, PM2), who is in the famous picture of the American flag being raised over
Mt. Suribachi.
The USS Laffey did not participate in the
actual bombardment of the Iwo Jima defenses.
She was part of Task Group 58.4 - steaming a few miles to the west - which
supported the
invasion with carrier based air strikes before, during, and after the actual
invasion.
