Six soldiers from Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment, 5th Marine Division raised Old Glory atop Mt. Suribachi amid the waning days of the Second World War, 76 years ago today.

Dedicated in 1954 “For the Marine dead of all wars, and their comrades of other services who fell fighting beside them,” the United States Marine Corps War Memorial is based upon the iconic 1945 photograph of Marines raising a U.S. flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

It is located in Arlington Ridge Park within the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

Three of the six Marines in the photograph on which the memorial is based — SGT Michael Strank, CPL Harlon Block, and PFC Franklin Sousley — would be killed in battle within a month.