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Interview With Dana Dierkes of the U.S. Park Service

Aired May 26, 2003 - 15:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For 49 years now the United States Marine Corps War Memorial has stood here right on the edge of Arlington Cemetery. It is a beautiful place; it is a place that draws many people over the course of the year, and conjures up many strong emotions.
Of course you know it as the Iwo Jima Memorial, but it really is a memorial to all Marines who have died since the Marines came into existence before the Republic in 1775.

Dana Dierkes is the supervisory park ranger of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and she is very familiar with this place. She joins us now to give us a little background on all of this.

What is it about - there's an awful lot of memorials in this town. What is it about this one that sets it apart?

DANA DIERKES, U.S. PARK SERVICE: Well you know I think people come to this memorial with a lot of feeling. As you were talking about a little bit earlier. I - when I come out here to work this site I oftentimes meet veterans who specifically either, you know, fought in the battle of Iwo Jima or fought in other wars who come here with a strong amount of emotion.

Now in addition to that, you know, I meet people who've found a newfound sense of freedom since 9/11 happened. I also find your average tourist who sometimes come here just comes here just to even check it off their list.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about some of the things people may or may not know about this particular statue. First of all, the flag raising, which it depicts, was not the first flag raising in that terrible battle, was it?

DIERKES: You're right. Actually, this was the second flag raising. If you picture Iwo Jima as an island about 660 miles away from Tokyo, and on the island there is a volcano called Mt. Suribachi.

Mt. Suribachi rises about 550 feet above the island, and the flag was actually raised on the top of that mount - that mountain or Mt. Suribachi. Again, it was the second flag raising, it was earlier the very same day that the first crew went up, but the flag was pretty small and folks wanted a larger flag and so that very afternoon people went up to the next level and same level as the mountain and posted a new flag. O'BRIEN: And fortunately for us all - for those of us who appreciate icons such as this, photographer John Rosenthal (ph) was with them and snapped this picture.

It's interesting, I've seen it in still and I've seen the film photography of it. The still is better. It's interesting. It captures the moment and it captures a moment of triumph under duress, doesn't it?

DIERKES: Absolutely. Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: Tell us about what happened then. How the photograph became this tremendous monument.

DIERKES: Well actually a sculptor, Felix De Weldon who actually was with the U.S. Navy at the time was so inspired by this photograph that he decided he had to make a statue out of it.

And so it was a long process, several years worth of a process, in order to cast it into plaster in several different various models. And then make it to the actual size it is now. And then in addition they actually took that plaster statue and then cast it into bronze. Just casting it into bronze took three years.

O'BRIEN: Now the five Marines and one sailor depicted in all of that - three of them were killed shortly thereafter in action. The other three went on to actually pitch for war bonds. It was interesting; they became celebrities, didn't they?

DIERKES: Yes, they did. Yes, they definitely did. In addition, it's kind of interesting to note that the three that survived actually modeled for sculpture Felix De Weldon when he was actually making the faces and of course for the gentlemen that died, they had to do that by photographs as well.

O'BRIEN: Dana Dierkes, thank you for giving us some insights to this wonderful place and emotional place on this Memorial Day 2003 - an emotional place any day. Thank you very much for being here.

DIERKES: Thank you, it was a pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 26, 2003 - 15:49   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For 49 years now the United States Marine Corps War Memorial has stood here right on the edge of Arlington Cemetery. It is a beautiful place; it is a place that draws many people over the course of the year, and conjures up many strong emotions.
Of course you know it as the Iwo Jima Memorial, but it really is a memorial to all Marines who have died since the Marines came into existence before the Republic in 1775.

Dana Dierkes is the supervisory park ranger of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and she is very familiar with this place. She joins us now to give us a little background on all of this.

What is it about - there's an awful lot of memorials in this town. What is it about this one that sets it apart?

DANA DIERKES, U.S. PARK SERVICE: Well you know I think people come to this memorial with a lot of feeling. As you were talking about a little bit earlier. I - when I come out here to work this site I oftentimes meet veterans who specifically either, you know, fought in the battle of Iwo Jima or fought in other wars who come here with a strong amount of emotion.

Now in addition to that, you know, I meet people who've found a newfound sense of freedom since 9/11 happened. I also find your average tourist who sometimes come here just comes here just to even check it off their list.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about some of the things people may or may not know about this particular statue. First of all, the flag raising, which it depicts, was not the first flag raising in that terrible battle, was it?

DIERKES: You're right. Actually, this was the second flag raising. If you picture Iwo Jima as an island about 660 miles away from Tokyo, and on the island there is a volcano called Mt. Suribachi.

Mt. Suribachi rises about 550 feet above the island, and the flag was actually raised on the top of that mount - that mountain or Mt. Suribachi. Again, it was the second flag raising, it was earlier the very same day that the first crew went up, but the flag was pretty small and folks wanted a larger flag and so that very afternoon people went up to the next level and same level as the mountain and posted a new flag. O'BRIEN: And fortunately for us all - for those of us who appreciate icons such as this, photographer John Rosenthal (ph) was with them and snapped this picture.

It's interesting, I've seen it in still and I've seen the film photography of it. The still is better. It's interesting. It captures the moment and it captures a moment of triumph under duress, doesn't it?

DIERKES: Absolutely. Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: Tell us about what happened then. How the photograph became this tremendous monument.

DIERKES: Well actually a sculptor, Felix De Weldon who actually was with the U.S. Navy at the time was so inspired by this photograph that he decided he had to make a statue out of it.

And so it was a long process, several years worth of a process, in order to cast it into plaster in several different various models. And then make it to the actual size it is now. And then in addition they actually took that plaster statue and then cast it into bronze. Just casting it into bronze took three years.

O'BRIEN: Now the five Marines and one sailor depicted in all of that - three of them were killed shortly thereafter in action. The other three went on to actually pitch for war bonds. It was interesting; they became celebrities, didn't they?

DIERKES: Yes, they did. Yes, they definitely did. In addition, it's kind of interesting to note that the three that survived actually modeled for sculpture Felix De Weldon when he was actually making the faces and of course for the gentlemen that died, they had to do that by photographs as well.

O'BRIEN: Dana Dierkes, thank you for giving us some insights to this wonderful place and emotional place on this Memorial Day 2003 - an emotional place any day. Thank you very much for being here.

DIERKES: Thank you, it was a pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com