In memory of service
"Death on the Deck of an LCI....Iwo Jima --- Americans died at their gun posts as enemy fire crashed aboard this LCI while assault boats headed in to the landing beaches on Iwo Jima. In the picture, the dead and injured gun crewmen still lie on the deck as another ship puts alongside to give aid. Groups (of) troops are still engaged in bitter and costly fighting on the tiny Jap island." Quoted from the original picture caption released for publication on 26 February 1945 by Commander in Chief, Pacific. (This image shows one of several Landing Craft Infantry (Gunboat)s [LCI(G)] that were badly shot up by Japanese defenses on 17 February 1945, while supporting Underwater Demolition Teams off Iwo Jima. Note the 40mm single gun in the foreground, shell fragment damage to the ship's conning tower, and her pattern camouflage.)
The original photograph came from the illustrations package for Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison's "History of United States Naval Operations in World War II", volume XIV: "Victory in the Pacific".
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.