 The three men who were part of the flag raising (made famous by the  photograph Joe Rosenthal had taken) and survived the battle for Iwo  Jima, appear in the movie. Rene A. Gagnon (qv),  Ira H. Hayes (qv) and John H. Bradley (qv) are seen with with  John Wayne (I) (qv) as he instructs them to hoist the flag. (Wayne  gives the folded flag to Gagnon). The flag used to recreate the  incident is the actual flag that was raised on Mount Suribachi on  February 23, 1945. It was loaned to the movie by the US Marine Corps  Museum in Quantico, Virginia.