FLEMINGSBURG — An annual ceremony that honors Fleming County native PFC Franklin R. Sousley will be held on Feb. 23.
Sousley, who was born in Hilltop on Sept. 19, 1925, graduated from Flemingsburg High School in 1943, before joining the United States Marines at the age of 18.
He fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II, and was among one of the six Marines who raised an American flag on Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, in the iconic picture taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. Mount Suribachi was the highest point on Iwo Jima.
Sousley was killed in action on March 21, 1945, and was buried in the Elizaville Cemetery on May 8, 1945.
This year, the ceremony will also honor the 75th anniversary of the assault on Iwo Jima, according to Tammy Gray, with the Fleming County Fiscal Court.
It will begin at 1 p.m., at the Flemingsburg Franklin Sousley Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1843 with the VFW Auxiliary providing lunch.
The ceremony will conclude at the Elizaville Cemetery with a service at 3 p.m. with a flag raising and a 21-gun salute.
