Home Qwest's video: Iwo Jima Statue Restored - Cape Coral FL Monument Restoration Project

Iwo Jima Statue Restored, Cape Coral, FL Monument Restoration Project As commuters cross the Midpoint Memorial Bridge connecting Fort Myers to Cape Coral, they are greeted by the site of a 20-foot statue depicting five Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman raising the American flag on 560-foot Mount Suribachi, the highest point on Iwo Jima, a small island located 660 miles south of Tokyo. Many think that it is a replica of the 60-foot-tall Iwo Jima Memorial near Arlington National Cemetary in Virginia, but it is, in fact, one of three originals that were created by a sculptor by the name of Felix de Weldon. De Weldon was inspired to sculpt the memorial after seeing AP photographer Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning picture of the actual flag raising that took place on February 19, 1945. “The photograph came into the War Department on a Thursday,” relates North Fort Myers sculptor Don Wilkins, who has helped restore the Cape Coral monument on several occasions.. “De Weldon immediately saw in the photo a sculpture, and he started a model of the statue the next day. He finished it on Monday and showed it to then IJM 3Vice-President Harry S. Truman on Wednesday.” That mock-up (known as a maquette) eventually won him a commission to create the 60-bronze that has stood just outside of the Arlington National Cemetary on the southern shores of the Potomac River since its installation in September of 1954. The smaller, 20-foot Cape Coral monument stands proudly on the southern edge of Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve, within view of traffic motoring by on Veterans Parkway. At 20 feet from base to IJM 4the tip of the steel flagpole, it is roughly one-third the scale of the memorial in Arlington. The sculpture weighs a whopping 67,000 pounds and was made in 1964 out of concrete poured over a superstructure consisting of rebar and steel. Depicted are Pfc. Rene A. Gagnon, Pfc. Ira Hayes, Pharmacist Mate Second Class John Bradley, Pfc. Harlon Block, Sergeant Mike Strank and Pfc. Franklin Sously. Block, Strank, and Sously died within days of the flag raising in combat on the IJM 5northern end of the island. De Weldon sculpted them using their photographs and measurements. Hayes was also sent to the northern end of the island and was wounded in a mortar attack. But he survived, as did Gagnon and Bradley. All three survivors modeled for de Weldon’s tribute to all Marines who have died in action since 1777. To create the statue, de Weldon first built the figures’ bone structures with a steel framework. He then put muscles and skin over this framework. The strain of the soldiers’ muscles dramatically shows through their uniforms, which were added later. Veterans Memorial at Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve Address: 2101 SE 23rd Terrace Info: (239) 573-3128 or www.Capeparks.com - tag a friend - invite your friends to join Historical Photos of Cape Coral cape coral veterans memorial at four mile cove ecological preserve iwo jima statue restored iwo jima statue cape coral fl monument restoration project history of cape coral cape coral history cape coral monument iwo jima homeqwest realty group follow us on: Subscribe to us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HomeQwest Website: http://www.homeqwest.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homeqwest Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeqwest Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/homeqwest Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/homeqwest Google +: https://www.google.com/+HomeQwest Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HomeQwest Trulia: http://www.trulia.com/profile/joseph-a-deluca-broker-cape-coral-fl-23059082/overview Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/homeqwest