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Dedicated to those men of the Special Officer Candidates' School September
1944 who
gave their lives in the service of their country at Iwo Jima and
Okinawa
Allen, Robert William
Armiger, John Oliver
Baker, William Leonard
Bittig, John Arthur
Brundage, Robert Peter
Cabrall, Francis Paul Jr.
Cohen, Erwin Robert
Cook, Thomas Clayton
Crane, Duncan McLaren
Dahl, John Manly
Davis, Dick Leon
DeMange, Ewing Antoine
Dieffenderfer, James Herbert
Dunning, Charles William
Eckert, John Andrew III
Ehrisman, Richard Dean
Evangelist, Nicholas Charles
Falcon, Lawless Costant
Fansler, Jack Willard
Fisher, William Farr
Fussell, Hilton Howard III
Gaillard, Edward McGrady Jr.
Garcia, Alberto
Ginsburg, Daniel
Harrington, Charles Edwin Jr.
Harris, James Dudley
Hawkins, William Blair
Henderson, Eugene
Holmes, Robert Duncan
Hutchcroft, Lester Earl
Jones, Dunbar
Kalish, Norbert
Lamport, Harry Bowman Jr.
Leach, Edmund Lyons
Louviere, Clarence Justin Jr.
Lowell, Harvey William
Mason, Quintin
McCreary, Kenneth Grant
Miller, Lloyd Lynn
Mueller, Donald Edward
Muir, William Matthew
Munroe, Richard Poundstone
Murphy, Dean Gilroy
Pace, Sidney Bransford
Ray, Stanley
Saperstein, Samuel
Todd, George Kenneth
Woodworth, Henry Dresses Jr. |
Harlon H. Block, of Weslaco, Texas, was 18 years old in 1943 when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. As a member of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine
Division, his company was one of the first ashore on February 19, 1945 when
allied forces stormed the Pacific Island of Iwo Jima.
On the fifth day of battle, Block's rifle platoon was sent to raise a large
American flag on the island's highest point, Mount Suribachi. The event was
captured in a world famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal, which inspired Felix de
Weldon to sculpt the Iwo Jima War Memorial for the Arlington National Cemetery.
The original model of that monument is the memorial here at Marine Military
Academy. Corporal Block is the Marine seen at the base of the flagpole, pushing
it into the volcanic rock.
On March 1, just six days after the flag raising, Block was killed in subsequent
fighting on Iwo Jima, and buried in the 5th Marine Division Cemetery there.
After the war, his remains were returned to Weslaco.
On February 18, 1995, during a ceremony commemorating the 50th Anniversary of
the battle of Iwo Jima, Corporal Harlon H. Block was enshrined here next to the
Iwo Jima Memorial, where the world will forever honor his bravery, and pay
tribute to the UnitedStates Marines, and all other members of the our nation's
Armed Forces.
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