Letter from Private Trent Hafner to Tom Curley, President of the Associated Press

Dear Mr. Curley,

Sixty-two years ago, in the midst of a historic battle, six of our finest men ran atop Mount Suribachi and raised an American flag on a makeshift flagpole. I know this because I was there, Mr. Curley. I was at Iwo Jima with my men and I was cropped out of that iconic photograph.

I have enclosed the original photographs that Mr. Joe Rosenthal sent to me after the war, and you know what? I kind of like them more than the original!

I hope that you come to realize that it is your right — no, your responsibility to publish these original photographs, without the artificial borders you gave them in 1945.