Harlon
Block, the son of Belle
Brantley
Block, and the great grandson of John David (Tobe)
Brantley, is one of the marines in the
photo seen around the world in 1945 that pictured soldiers
raising the flag at
Iwo
Jima.
Harlon
was killed in action shortly after the photo was taken. He
is portrayed actor Benjamin
Walker in the film and his mother Belle
Brantley Block is
played by Judith
Ivey.
This
is a story that my mother, Zoie
Brantley Durham,
had told me about her first cousin Belle
Brantley and her son
several decades ago. She gave me some newspaper clippings
from 1945 that reported the incident.
Harlon and several of his
class mates at Weslaco
High School in south Texas were allowed to graduate early so
they could join the armed forces in 1943. He was with the
marines that stormed the island of
Iwo
Jima in 1945. The flag
they raised was the first American flag to fly over Japanese
soil in WWII.
Photos
were taken to document the event. The photo that included
Harlon
was soon seen all over the world.
Harlon did not leave
Iwo
Jima alive.
When
his mother Belle saw the Flag Raising Photo in the
Weslaco Newspaper on Feb.
25, she exclaimed, "That's
Harlon" pointing to the figure on the far right. But
the US Government had mistakenly identified the figure as
Harry Hansen of Boston. Belle never wavered in her belief
that it was Harlon
insisting, "I know my boy." No one--not her family,
neighbors, the Government or the public--had any reason to
believe her. But eighteen months later in a sensational
front-page story, a Congressional investigation revealed
that it was Harlon in the
photo, proving that indeed, Belle
Brantley Block did
"know her boy."
Harlon Block is buried
beside the Iwo
Jima Monument in
Harlingen, Texas.
