There were five Marines and one Navy Corpsman photographed raising the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. "Flags of Our Fathers" is the story of three of the six surviving servicemen, John "Doc" Bradley (Ryan Phillippe), Pvt. Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford), and Pvt. Ira Hayes (Adam Beach), who fought in the battle to take Iwo Jima. "Flags of Our Fathers" is the American viewpoint of Eastwood's diptych on the battle of Iwo Jima, the other being "Letters From Iwo Jima", which tells the same story from the Japanse point of view.