QUANTICO — The U.S. flag will once again fly over the Iwo Jima Memorial at Quantico.
During the windstorm in March, the hands holding the pole were damaged to the point that the flag was no longer stable. The statue greets visitors at the main gate to the base, as well as those who use Route 1 to drive past the base..
Bids have been solicited and received by the Marine Corps to repair the statue. A decision to award a repair contract should be made in the next couple of weeks.
The main repairs will be to the hands holding the statue, which in some places are cracked completely through. Other work will be done to restore and stabilize the limestone in other weakened areas of the memorial.
The range of repairs will depend on the extent of the damage discovered during the official inspections done during the bidding process.
Repairs will be paid for from the base maintenance fund. Work is estimated to begin in 30-90 days. The restoration of the memorial should take another three months to complete.
Despite the number of calls that have been placed to the base regarding the missing flag, officials made the decision to remove the flag until repairs could be done.
The statue is a recreation of a photograph captured by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945, of Marines raising the flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima in WWII.
Architects of the nearby National Museum of the Marine Corps modeled the building after the photograph.
Marines stationed at Quantico Marine Corps Base have offered to repair the statue themselves. One Marine called the Office of public affairs, stating “Send a Gunny and three Marines out there. There’ll be a flag up in fifteen minutes,” said Captain Ken Kunze, a base spokesman.
Patriotic Marines on base have already replaced the flag in the hands of the statue on one occasion.
Officials, fearing that the weight of the blowing flag would cause more extensive damage to the memorial, are discouraging further offers of help. It is possible, due to the current extent of the damage, that some of the fingers could actually break off.
This is not the first time the iconic statue has needed repair. The limestone memorial was vandalized in 2012 and damaged by a storm 2014.
