The scale of the drive was enormous — the Treasury Department needed to raise funds for what military planners estimated could be the most costly phase of the entire war: the invasion of the Japanese home islands, which was still the assumed path to victory before the atomic bombings changed the strategic calculus entirely.

The bond tour featuring the three surviving flag raisers was central to the marketing campaign for the drive.

Rene Gagnon, John Bradley, and Ira Hayes were flown to Washington in April, met by military officials and politicians, issued new uniforms, and immediately placed in the machinery of a nationwide promotional campaign.

They attended events in Washington, New York, Boston, Chicago, and dozens of other cities.

They appeared at baseball games, at department stores, at factory gatherings of tens of thousands of workers, at formal dinners with business leaders and politicians.