From our series commemorating the 75th anniversary of WWII, our exclusive design honoring the Marines and all of our troops who fought on Iwo Jima and throughout the Pacific.
On the front, an image from the iconic photograph, "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945, which shows six United States Marines raising a U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
On the back, "Operation Detachment", "75", and the dates February 19 - March 26, 1945 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Operation Detachment and the invasion of Iwo Jima.
Includes a special commemorative hang tag. More on the hangtag below.
The shirt: We’re offering your choice of fabrics and colors:
- 100% cotton Made in America shirt in Military green — Knitted, dyed, and sewn in the USA. 4.3 oz. XS - 3X. See size chart.
- Our standard 4.3 oz. Poly-Cotton shirt that gets rave reviews. Our softest shirt. It's also our thinnest and lightest. It is very high-quality and long-wearing, but it is thin and light. Lots of people love them, which you can see in the reviews, but if you judge t-shirt quality based on weight or thickness, do not get this one. Instead, get the 100% cotton shirt above. In Light olive and black. S - 3X. See size chart.
Note that the $3 price difference for the 100% cotton Made in the USA shirt is our higher wholesale cost; there is no additional margin.
This design is also available on a long-sleeved shirt and as a sticker.
Also available, "History Nerd" with the Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi sticker, magnet, and a bookmark.
Browse through other WWII themed products in this collection.
More on the commemorative hang tag: A 3.75" x 5.75" piece of paper, in color, on uncoated stock.
On the front:
On the back:
The invasion of Iwo Jima (February 19 – March 26, 1945), located 750 miles to the south of Tokyo, was the first U.S. attack on the Japanese Home Islands. The goal of the invasion was to capture the airfield, and on February 23, four days after the invasion, the American flag was raised on Mount Suribachi. The famous photograph we all know is of the second flag raising. The photo shown to the left is of the first flag raising.
“ . . . [T]he Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, had decided the previous night that he wanted to go ashore and witness the final stage of the fight for the mountain. Now, under a stern commitment to take orders from Howlin' Mad Smith, the secretary was churning ashore in the company of the blunt, earthy general. Their boat touched the beach just after the flag went up, and the mood among the high command turned jubilant. Gazing upward, at the red, white, and blue speck, Forrestal remarked to Smith: 'Holland, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years’.
"'Forrestal was so taken with fervor of the moment that he decided he wanted the Second Battalion's flag flying on Mt. Suribachi as a souvenir. The news of this wish did not sit well with 2nd Battalion Commander Chandler Johnson, whose temperament was every bit as fiery as Howlin Mad's.
‘To hell with that!' the colonel spat when the message reached him. The flag belonged to the battalion, as far as Johnson was concerned. He decided to secure it as soon as possible, and dispatched his assistant operations officer, Lieutenant Ted Tuttle, to the beach to obtain a replacement flag. As an after thought, Johnson called after Tuttle: 'And make it a bigger one.’"
— James Bradley, ‘Flags of Our Fathers’
The replacement flag had been found in a salvage yard in Pearl Harbor.
The Battle of Iwo Jima lasted 36 days and claimed 6,821 American lives.
Rosenthal was a combat photographer, first with the Merchant Marine and later as an Associated Press correspondent, who saw the war up close. He crossed the North Atlantic in a convoy of Liberty ships that was attacked by German U-boats, was in London during the Blitz, and photographed Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Army fighting in the jungles of New Guinea. In the Pacific, he went into battle aboard a cruiser, a battleship, and an aircraft carrier, flew with Navy dive-bombers over the Japanese- occupied Philippines, and went in with the first waves of Marines landing under fire on the islands of Guam, Peleliu, Angaur, and Iwo Jima. Before joining the Merchant Marine he tried to join the Army but was rejected because of his poor eyesight.
His photo won the Pulitzer Prize.
Sources: SFGate, Wikipedia
