
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 4, 1990                   TAG: 9007050185
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ON IWO JIMA, MEN FOUGHT FOR THE FLAG

IF HENRY Scholz (article, June 20) actually is so naive as to think that no one dies for the flag, I would like to take him back to Iwo Jima in late February 1945. A group of U.S. Marines, in full view of enemy fire, and standing atop Mount Suribachi - the highest point on the island - raised an American flag.

Troops were still fighting the enemy below, but that view of "Old Glory" whipping in the breeze gave the Marines fresh courage to finish the job they were trained to do.

I can assure Scholz that the brave men who hoisted the American flag in the full face of death were not thinking of the First Amendment. They did not have to risk their lives to haul that flagpole and flag up the mountain. They did it because they loved their flag and country - and wanted to show the Japanese that the American flag was a living symbol of what the United States stands for. A.B. FEUER ROANOKE

by CNB