He was twenty-two years old and the battle was still going on around him and men he knew were dying.

He was doing his job.

He was being a Marine.

He raised the flag because he was ordered to, because his sergeant organized it, because that is how the Marine Corps works — you do what you are ordered to do, when you are ordered to do it, and sometimes a photographer is watching.

He spent the rest of his life inside that moment.

He could not step out of it.