Cpl. Harlon Block, USMC

Block played end for the Weslaco Panthers and was named All South Texas End. He and seven classmates enlisted before graduation, and the school held an early ceremony for them. For nearly two years after the Rosenthal photograph a different Marine, Sergeant Henry Hansen, was named in Block's place. In January 1947 the Marine Corps announced, after an investigation, that Block had been among the six at the second flagstaff. Corrections in 2016 and 2019 replaced two other names with Harold Schultz and Harold Keller. His mother, Ada Belle Block, sat among the families at the memorial's dedication.

What the plaque says

Cpl. Harlon Block, USMC During World War II, U.S. forces captured the small yet strategic Japanese-held Pacific Island of Iwo Jima. On Feb. 23, 1945, during combat, marine Harlon Block aided in laying telephone wire up an inert volcano. At the summit, Block and five others improvised a flagpole, attaching a flag visible to those on the island and outlying ships. In doing so, Block and his fellow servicemen became the subject of one of the most recognized photographic images of World War II, the U.S. flag raising on Mt. Suribachi. On Mar. 1, 1945, his squad leader was killed. Block took command, but was tragically killed hours later. His remains were repatriated in 1949 to his hometown of Weslaco and in 1995 to the Iwo Jima monument in Harlingen. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836 - 2011

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge — 9.3 mi
  About 2,000 acres of river forest on the Rio Grande's north bank, the surviving part of Benigno Leal's 1834 land grant, kept as a refuge since 1943 where two bird migration routes meet.
• Museum of South Texas History — 15 mi
  Edinburg's regional museum, begun in 1967 in the 1910 Hidalgo County jail and now telling the Rio Grande's story from fossils and native peoples through steamboats to the 20th century.
• La Lomita Chapel — 20 mi
  A small sandstone chapel on the Rio Grande levee, built by Oblate missionaries in 1865 and rebuilt at this site in 1899, the landmark that gave the city of Mission its name.
• Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park — 24 mi
  A 587-acre stand of Rio Grande woodland near Mission, once part of a Spanish porción, given to the state by the Bentsen family in 1944 and now headquarters of the World Birding Center.

More markers nearby

• Weslaco — 1.2 mi
• Citrus Fruit Developed in Rio Grande Valley - Red-Meat Grapefruit — 2.6 mi
• Camp Llano Grande — 2.6 mi
• Donna — 3.8 mi