Dear Editor,
I was just at a restaurant waiting for some breakfast tacos to go, standing by the
Chronicle paper rack. A young couple about 20 looked down at the cover with a drawing and article by Mary Tuma, showing four judges raising the flag over a pregnant woman's stomach ["
Roe's End?" News, Jan. 29]. One said, “Is that Roe?” Probably trying to be entertaining. I was standing there and said it was a caption about the flag raising on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, in February 1945. I pointed to the bottom guy and said, “That’s Harlon Block from Weslaco, Texas.” There were five Marines and one Navy Corpsman named James Bradley. Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, and Michael Strank never made it off the island. I ended it with, “It’s because of those people we have freedom of press, let’s try and not forget.”