1, and Pfc. Sousley was killed on March 21. Death On March 20, 1945, the Marine Corps was ordered by President Franklin Roosevelt to send the flag raisers in Rosenthal's photo after the battle to Washington D.C. as a public morale factor and to participate in a much needed war bond selling tour. Sgt. Strank and Cpl. Block were killed on March 1. Pfc. Sousley was killed on March 21. The book Flags of Our Fathers (2000) by James Bradley (son of Navy corpsman John Bradley who accompanied the 40-man patrol up the mountain), says Pfc. Sousley was shot in the back by a Japanese sniper as he was walking down an open road which was a known area of enemy sniper fire, and speculated that he lost his focus or thought the Japanese had stopped firing. According to the book, a fellow Marine saw Sousley lying on the ground and asked, "How bad are you hit?" Sousley's last words were, "Not bad, I can't feel a thing." He then died of his injuries. However, Rene Gagnon, who knew Sousley personally for several months and saw Sousley the day he was killed, had signed an affidavit for the Marine Corps reporting that Sousley was killed instantly. Pfc. Sousley's body was buried at the 5th Marine Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima, on March 25, 1945. A service was held there in the morning of March 26 by the division's surviving Marines, which included Ira Hayes and other members of Sousley's platoon and company before they departed Iwo Jima the next day. Sousley's remains were reinterred on May 8, 1948, in Elizaville Cemetery in Fleming County, Kentucky. Marine Corps War Memorial The Marine Corps War Memorial (also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial) in Arlington, Virginia, was dedicated on November 10, 1954. The monument was sculpted by Felix de Weldon from the image of the second flag raising on Mount Suribachi. Due to some incorrect identifications of the second flag raisers, Sousley is depicted as the third instead of the fifth 32-foot (9.8 M) bronze statue from the bottom of the flagstaff since June 13, 2016 (Harold Schultz is depicted as the fifth bronze statue). The Memorial was turned over to the National Park Service in 1955. During the dedication, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sat upfront with Vice President Richard Nixon, Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert