Xactly the Same! The "Original" Iwo Jima Monument Virtual Cache
Xactly the Same! The "Original" Iwo Jima Monument
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To claim a find on this Virtual cache, you must go to the listed coordinates and take a photo of yourself with the monument in the background. Post the photo with your log. This is a wheelchair accessible location. Your face does not have to be in the photo.
Previous photos such as vacation photos are not acceptable. Logs without photos will be deleted. Logs with a single photo taken more than 30 feet from the listed coordinates will be deleted. Take more than one photo if you want to create a better photo at a different location, but the photo at the coordinates is required and must be posted with your log.
On Feb 19, 1945, Marines invaded the island of Iwo Jima, a Japanese stronghold in the Pacific. Two days later, Marines reached the top of Mount Suribachi and a small American flag was raised. Later, on the same day, a larger flag was raised by six Marines. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal captured that flag raising on film. A few days later it was published in Sunday papers across America. Sculptor Dr. Felix W. de Weldon, then on duty with the U.S. Navy, saw the photo and constructed a small scale model within 48 hours.
After the war, Dr. de Weldon worked for 9.5 years to create a full size model from molding plaster. The survivors of the flag raising posed for the artist to create their faces. Photos and physical descriptions of the three who gave their lives were used in modeling their faces.
Once completed in plaster, the statue was disassembled and shipped to Brooklyn, N.Y. to be cast in bronze. It took 3 years for the casting process. The bronze parts were then shipped to Washington D.C. for erection in Arlington National Cemetery. The plaster working model was shipped to Dr. de Weldon's studio in Newport, R.I. The U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial was dedicated on Nov. 10, 1954.
In October 1981, after much consideration, Dr. de Weldon gifted the original working plaster model to the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, TX. This site selection included:
1. Fairly consistant temperature and humidity for preservation of the molding-plaster figures.
2. The street facing the memorial was named Iwo Jima Boulevard in 1965.
3. The MMA is the only place outside of Washington D.C., where proper honors are rendered with battalion-size dress blue parades.
4. The Marine placing the flagpole into the ground was a native of the area, Cpl Harlin H. Block. Block's gravesite resides directly behind the monument. Cpl Block was killed during continued fighting on Iwo Jima only a few days after the flag raising. .
The Iwo Jima Monument was dedicated April 16, 1982 on the MMA Parade Ground. It is coated with fiberglass for weather protection.
No public funds were used on the Iwo Jima Monument. Transporting and erection of the monument was paid for with donations from Marines, former Marines, Marine Corps Reservists, friends of the Marine Corps, members of the Naval Service, MMA trustees, alumni and cadets, and friends of MMA.
The nearby Iwo Jima Museum is free. It's open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Credits:
1. Although available from other sources, most of the information on this cache page, and more, came from the Marine Military Academy's website: https://www.mma-tx.org/about-us/Iwo-Jima-Monument/
2. The Joe Rosenthal Photo still belongs to Associated Press.
Virtual Reward - 2017/2018 This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[The listed coordinates should take you to an expansion joint in the concrete walkway on the north side of the monument.]