Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Mary Pero, sister of the late Marine Sgt. Mike Strank, one of the Iwo Jima flag raisers, holds an oil painting of the Joe Rosenthal photo that captured the famous World War II event. Click photo for larger image. The Iwo Jima flag-raisers Mike Strank, Franklin Borough, Cambria County. He died at age 25 in a mortar blast on March 1, 1945, six days after raising the flag. Harlon Block, Rio Grande Valley, Texas. Mr. Block, 21, also died in a mortar explosion on March 1, hours after Sgt. Strank, who was his platoon leader. Franklin Sousley, Hilltop, Ky. A Japanese sniper killed him on March 21, 1945. Mr. Sousley was 19. Ira Hayes, Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona. He came home a reluctant hero, drank heavily and died in 1955 at age 32. John Bradley, Antigo, Wis. Intensely private, he returned to Wisconsin and rarely answered questions about the war. Mr. Bradley fulfilled his ambition of running a funeral home. He died in 1994 at age 70. Rene Gagnon, Manchester, N.H. Of the three survivors, he alone tried to capitalize on his celebrity. He had small parts in two war films, including "The Sands of Iwo Jima." But civilian life was not easy. He ended up disillusioned, working as a janitor. Mr. Gagnon died in 1979 at age 54.

At 73, Mary Pero does not go to the movies often. Coarse language and far-fetched scripts hold no appeal for her.

But tomorrow brings a movie she will not miss -- director Clint Eastwood's look back at the epic battle of Iwo Jima and the five Marines and one Navy corpsman who raised the U.S. flag there in a spontaneous moment of triumph.

One of them was Mrs. Pero's big brother, Marine Platoon Sgt. Mike Strank.

He led his men up Mount Suribachi after its capture on Feb. 23, 1945. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal was with them. His photo of the flag-raisers became one of the most famous images ever, immortalizing everyone in it.

Six days after Mr. Rosenthal took the picture, Sgt. Strank was dead. A mortar blast killed him as he outlined a battle plan in the sand.

Just 12 when her 25-year-old brother died, Mrs. Pero remembers little about that time except overwhelming sadness. As Sgt. Strank's family in Franklin Borough, Cambria County, grieved, the whole country got a small glimpse of who he was because of the photo.

The story of the men will come alive again tomorrow with the nationwide release of "Flags of Our Fathers," Mr. Eastwood's movie. It is based on the book of the same name by James Bradley and Ron Powers.

Mrs. Pero, of Davidsville in Somerset County, said the movie has renewed interest in her brother's short, hard life.

"I'm getting so many calls. My neighbors and people at church are talking about it. I very much liked the book, so I'm looking forward to the movie."

Yet, if she is sure of anything, it is that Sgt. Strank would hate being the object of any attention.

"He saw himself as an ordinary guy doing his job." Mrs. Pero said. "His job happened to be fighting a war, but that didn't make him special. Everybody had somebody in that war."

Her other two brothers, John and Pete, both now dead, also were in military service at the time.

During the fighting on Iwo Jima, 6,821 Americans and more than 21,000 Japanese were killed. Because of the flag-raising photo, Sgt. Strank became one of the three most storied casualties. Two fellow Marines who were in the picture with him died soon after he did.

During the 1940s, notification of a war casualty came by telegram. The appearance of a Western Union man would chill a town, as mothers and wives worried about which house he was heading for.

Sgt. Strank's mother, Martha, was so shaken she could not open the telegram delivered to her home. She begged the man from Western Union to do it. He said it was against company policy, but he finally tore it open and read it to her. So it was that a stranger announced that her oldest son was dead.

Marine Sgt. Mike Strank Click photo for larger image.

Sgt. Strank was born Mychal Strenk in Jarabenia, Czechoslovakia. He immigrated to the United States as a 3-year-old, after his father found work as a coal miner.

The Stranks settled in Franklin Borough outside Johnstown. Their home was a short walk from the Bethlehem Steel mill that employed 18,000 men at its peak.

Mike could only speak Slovak when he entered first grade. But he learned English so quickly and so well that his teachers promoted him to third grade at the end of that first year.

Ambitious and blessed with a photographic memory, he might have become an engineer or a college professor if he had been born a generation later. Instead, he graduated from high school in 1937 and found no job prospects in Depression-scarred Central Pennsylvania.

So he signed up for the Civilian Conservation Corps, which put young men to work on public projects. Two years later, still without a decent job prospect, Mr. Strank joined the Marines.

"He came home on leave after 2¹/₂ years overseas," Mrs. Pero said. "Friends wanted to take him out, but he was so tired. I remember sitting and playing cards and Chinese checkers with him. That's my memory of my big brother."

Soon after, her father took him on a streetcar to Johnstown, where he caught a train to California and then moved on to the fighting in the Pacific. Sgt. Strank would never see home again.

The movie focuses more on the three flag-raisers who survived than the three who died. Nonetheless, Mrs. Pero is looking forward to seeing Hollywood's depiction of her brother, who is portrayed by actor Barry Pepper.

"I'm going to see the movie in Johnstown with my husband. I want to go when nobody knows. This is one I'm looking forward to."