Iwo Jima flag raiser gets citizenship papers
Posted: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 5:15 PM
Filed Under:
John Rutherford
By John Rutherford, NBC News Producer
WASHINGTON – Marine Sgt. Michael Strank received his citizenship papers Tuesday, 63 years after he helped raise the American flag over Mount Suribachi and was later killed in the battle of Iwo Jima.
His certificate of citizenship was presented to his sister at a brief ceremony in the shadows of the Iwo Jima Memorial overlooking the nation's capital.
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| USCIS |
| Sgt. Michael Strank, USMC. |
"I am just so honored and proud to be here today to accept this citizenship in honor of my brother," Mary Pero, 75, of Pittsburgh, said.
Strank, four other Marines and a Navy corpsman are depicted on the huge bronze memorial hoisting the flag over the volcanic island on Feb. 23, 1945.
"He wouldn't have wanted the fame," Pero said after the ceremony. "He was there, and he did his job."
Michael Strank's journey to Iwo Jima began in 1919 in Jarabenia, Czechoslovakia, where he was born. He came to America at the age of 3 and grew up playing baseball and the French horn in western Pennsylvania.
"He was the oldest child in the family, and I was the youngest," Pero said. "He was very caring."
Strank automatically became a citizen when his father was naturalized in 1935, but Strank never received his citizenship papers. This oversight was only recently discovered by a gunnery sergeant assigned to a Marine security detachment in Bratislava, Slovak Republic.
"I was so overwhelmed," Pero said.
Strank had joined the Marines in 1939 and fought in some of World War II's bloodiest battles against Japan. He landed on Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945, and helped raise the flag four days later.
"Those who served alongside him have said he had a way of setting them at ease, making them feel that he could help them survive the war," said Jonathan Scharfen, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
On March 1, 1945, while attacking Japanese positions in northern Iwo Jima, Strank was fatally wounded by enemy artillery fire.
"When we had a memorial service, the newspaper called us, and they informed my parents that he was one of the boys that raised the flag," Pero said. "That's how we found out."
Strank was buried on Iwo Jima and later reinterred in Section 12 of Arlington National Cemetery, just a short distance from Tuesday's ceremony in his honor.
