U.S. Naval Academy Men’s Swimming and Diving Team Senior Class recreates the Marine Corps Memorial at Bottom of their Pool

CBS reports:

Swim team members reenacted the raising of the flag at the bottom of a pool and posted the photo on Twitter Wednesday. The caption reads simply, “Navy Men’s Swimming and Diving at its finest.”

Rosenthal’s photo won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Photography and became the inspiration for the Marine Corps War Memorial.

The memorial is also called the Iwo Jima Memorial and is a dedication to all the marines that lost their lives in service to the United States. As mention above the sculpture itself is also a recreation of a photograph that Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal took of marines raising the flag after the battle for Iwo Jima Island during World War II

At the time it was considered a meaningless battle in that it had no strategic importance whatsoever or so said the Chief of Naval Operations William V. Pratt during an interview he gave in April of 1945. Others argue that the island was of strategic importance because Japanese fighters stationed there would harass B-29 bombers and one of those bombers would have been the Enola Gay which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima

22,000 Japanese soldiers died versus 216 taken prisoner. The American losses were much higher. The reason for the high casualty numbers on both sides was that the Japanese refused to surrender and the Americans refused to leave.

This sort of ethic happened often during World War II; neither side would retreat, surrender or take prisoners. It is an accomplished fact that he Battle of the Bulge was the European version of "Iwo Jima."

I commend these swimmers' dedication and the love for what they are supporting. It's noble, commendable, and certainly appreciated. I will say that I am gravely disappointed at how badly our armed forces are paid. How poorly they are utilized when sent into harms way. How unappreciated they are by the last few sociopaths who have held the presidency. If the last four Presidents truly cared about our soldiers then the Veterans Administration wouldn't be the slow motion train wreck that it is.