John Henry "Jack" "Doc" Bradley (July 10, 1923 – January 11, 1994) was a United States Navy Hospital corpsman who was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism while serving with the Marines during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. During the battle, he was a member of the patrol that captured the top of Mount Suribachi and raised the first U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945.
Bradley was generally known as being one of the men who raised the second U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945, as depicted in the iconic photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by photographer Joe Rosenthal. On June 23, 2016, the Marine Corps announced publicly (after an investigation) that Bradley was not in the photograph. The man long thought to have been Bradley was identified as Private First Class Franklin Sousley, who had previously been thought to be in another position in the photograph, and the man who had been originally identified as Sousley was identified as Private First Class Harold Schultz. Bradley is one of three men who were originally identified incorrectly as flag-raisers in the photograph (the others being Hank Hansen and Rene Gagnon).
The first flag raised over Mount Suribachi at the south end of Iwo Jima was deemed too small. Although there were photographs taken of the first flag flying on Mount Suribachi after it was raised that include Bradley holding the flagstaff, there is no photograph of the first flag-raising. The second flag-raising photograph became famous and was widely reproduced. Bradley also was photographed near the second flag. After the battle, Bradley and two Marines were identified as surviving second flag-raisers and were reassigned to help raise funds for the Seventh War Loan drive.
The Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, is modeled after Rosenthal's photograph of six Marines raising the second flag on Iwo Jima.
John Bradley was born in Antigo, Wisconsin, to Irish Catholics James ("Cabbage") (1894–1953) and Kathryn Bradley (1895–1961). He was the second eldest of five children. He grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, graduating from Appleton Senior High School in 1941. His younger sister Mary Ellen died of pneumonia at a young age. He had an interest in entering the funeral business from an early age, because he felt those were the men everyone looked up to, and later got a job at his local funeral home. He then completed an 18-month apprenticeship course with a local funeral director before he entered the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Bradley enlisted the U.S. Navy on January 13, 1943, when his father suggested it as a way to avoid ground combat. In March 1943, following his completion of Navy recruit training at the Farragut Naval Training Station at Bayview, Idaho, he was assigned to the Hospital Corps School at Farragut, Idaho. After completing the Hospital corpsman course, he was assigned to Naval Hospital Oakland in Oakland, California. In January 1944, he was assigned to the Fleet Marine Force and sent to one of the "field medical service schools" (FMSS) at a Marine Corps base for combat medical training in order to serve with a Marine Corps unit. After completing the course, he was assigned to the 5th Marine Division on April 15, a newly activated infantry division which was then being formed at Camp Pendleton, California. He was reassigned there to Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment of the division.
On February 19, 1945, the 5th Marine Division which included Bradley took part in the assault on Iwo Jima which was one of the most bitterly fought battles of the Pacific War's island-hopping campaign.
Bradley was assigned to Third Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines before and when they landed on the beach with the ninth wave of assault Marines at the south end of Iwo Jima near Mount Suribachi. After Bradley and PhM3c. Clifford Langley, the other E Company corpsman assigned to Third Platoon, aided American casualties on the beach, they continued on with E Company as the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines advanced towards Mount Suribachi, which was their objective on the southwest end of the island. On February 21, Bradley risked his life under fire to save the life of a Marine at the base of the mountain who was caught in the open under heavy Japanese fire. While still under and exposed to enemy fire, and in order to save the lives of other Marines who were willing to expose themselves under fire to bring back the wounded Marine, Bradley brought the wounded Marine to safety himself. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions.
On February 23, Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson, the Second Battalion commander, ordered a combat patrol to climb, seize, and occupy the top of Mount Suribachi and raise the battalion's flag if possible to signal it was secure. Captain Dave Severance, commander of E Company, organized a 40-man patrol taken from his Third Platoon and the battalion. First Lieutenant Harold Schrier, his executive officer and former Marine Raider, was chosen by Lt. Col. Johnson to be in command of the patrol to take the men up Mount Suribachi. At 8:30 a.m., the patrol started to climb the east slope of Suribachi. The patrol included Bradley from Third Platoon and Navy corpsman Gerald Ziehme (he replaced PhM2c. Clifford Langley, who was wounded on February 21). Less than an hour later, after receiving occasional Japanese sniper fire, the patrol reached the rim of the volcano. After a brief firefight there, Lieutenant Schrier and his men captured the summit. After finding a Japanese steel pipe and attaching the flag to it, the flagstaff was taken to the highest place on the crater. At about 10:30 a.m., Schrier, Platoon Sergeant Ernest Thomas, Sergeant Henry Hansen, and Corporal Charles Lindberg raised the flag. Seeing the raising of the national colors immediately caused loud cheering from the marines, sailors, and Coast Guardsmen on the beach below and from the men on the ships docked at the beach. A short time later, as the high winds on top caused the flagstaff to move sideways, Bradley helped make the flagstaff stay in a vertical position. The men at and around the flagstaff were photographed several times by Staff Sgt. Louis R. Lowery, a photographer with Leatherneck magazine who accompanied the patrol up the mountain. Platoon Sergeant Thomas was killed on Iwo Jima on March 3 and Sgt. Hansen was killed on March 1.
Since the first flag flown over Mount Suribachi was regarded as too small to be seen by the thousands of Marines fighting on the other side of Iwo Jima, it was decided that a larger flag should be flown on the mountain. Marine Sergeant Michael Strank a rifle squad leader from Second Platoon, E Company, was ordered by Captain Severance to ascend Mount Suribachi with three Marines from his squad and raise the replacement flag. Sgt. Strank ordered Corporal Harlon Block, Private First Class Ira Hayes, and Private First Class Franklin Sousley to go with him up Suribachi. Private First Class Rene Gagnon, the company's runner (messenger), was ordered to take the replacement flag up the mountain and return the first flag back down the mountain to the battalion adjutant.
Once all five Marines were on top, a Japanese steel pipe was found by Hayes and Sousley who carried the pipe to Strank and Block near the first flag. The second flag was attached to the pipe and, as Strank and his three Marines were about to raise the flagstaff, he yelled out to two nearby Marines from Lieutenant Schrier's patrol to help them raise it. At approximately 1 p.m., Schrier ordered the raising of the second flag and the lowering of the original flag. The second flag was raised by Strank, Block, Hayes, Sousley, Private First Class Harold Schultz, and Private First Class Harold Keller. Afterwards, rocks were added at the bottom of the flagstaff which was then stabilized by three guy-ropes. Joe Rosenthal's (Associated Press) historical black and white photograph of the second flag-raising on February 23, 1945, appeared in Sunday newspapers on February 25. This flag raising was also filmed in color by Marine sergeant Bill Genaust (killed in action in March) and was used in newsreels. Other combat photographers besides Rosenthal ascended the mountain after the first flag was raised and the mountaintop secured. These photographers, including private first class George Burns, an army photographer who was assigned to cover Marine amphibious landings for Yank Magazine, took photos of Marines, corpsmen, and themselves, around both of the flags.