The Iwo Jima Memorial in Harlingen

This is the original statue-----------honestly------------ of the Marines raising the American flag over Iwo Jima. It's located on the grounds of a military school in Harlingen Texas, about 20 miles from our campground.

This is the plaster model used to make the casts

for the Marine Memorial in Arlington Cemetery.
Yes, plaster! and No, I don't know how they take care of it.

The young Marine in the front of the statue was Harlon Block from Weslaco,

a town just west of Mercedes. He was killed just six days after the flag raising

and is buried here.



The base of the Memorial is 10 feet tall and each Marine is 32 feet tall.

The top of the flagpole is over 100 feet tall.

This is the kind of Howitzer that John fired in Viet Nam.

(I mistakenly called it a cannon and was corrected)

It's a 105 mm , and was used to support Marine Infantry. When the Infantry

moved they pulled the gun after, changing locations often. Six guns make up a battery

with 5-6 men on each gun. It could be packed up and moved in a hurry,

with each gun having a 2 1/2 ton truck assigned to it. That truck pulled the gun and carried the ammo, the men and all their gear.

See the two arms coming together at the hitch?
Those arms were spread apart for firing. When the first round was fired

a man would stand on each arm and the shovel-like device

at the base would be driven in the ground, setting the gun.

I learned a lot about Howitzers today.

I had a good lecturer.