The Correction He Fought For

In the years after the war, Ira Hayes took on a mission that may seem small from the outside but that mattered to him enormously: correcting the official identification of Harlon Block.

The initial identifications of the flag raisers, made on Iwo Jima under combat conditions, had misidentified Block — a young Marine from Rio Grande City, Texas — as Hank Hansen, a different Marine.

Block and Hansen were both in the 28th Marines; both were described as large men with similar physical builds.