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Photographer of Iwo Jima Flag Raising Dies at 94 Joe Rosenthal, who took the iconic photo of six U.S. servicemen raising the flag over Iwo Jima in World War II, has died in California. He was 94. Rosenthal got his picture at the end of a bloody five-week battle that left 6,800 American troops dead.

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Photographer of Iwo Jima Flag Raising Dies at 94

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Photographer of Iwo Jima Flag Raising Dies at 94

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

One of the defining images of another American war is the photo of six Marines raising the American flag over the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. Sixty-eight hundred U.S. troops died in five weeks of fighting to take Iwo Jima.

Photojournalist Joe Rosenthal took that picture on February 23, 1945 during the battle of the Pacific. He died yesterday at the age of 94.