The flag you see in that pic came from Red Sr's ship, the LST 758. Just after the flag raising a near miss bent their screws and they had to sit on the beach for the next 5 days, waiting for a tug. Dad said that he had a "front row seat for something I truly wish I could forget".
Dad is staying with me now. He's 90, and has had a rough year medically, but he's still as sharp as a razor mentally. "Most days I can't remember what I had for breakfast, but I can tell you exactly what I had for breakfast on the morning of feb.19th".
If anyone has a question they would like answered by someone who was there, post it here and I'll get dad to answer it, if he can.
BTW- Dad was Coast Guard. Of the 13 LST's involved in the landings, 9 had Coast Guard crews. The 758 carried elements of the 5th Marines.
Edited by red clay - 24-Feb-2012 at 10:14