Flags of Our Fathers (2000) is a New York Times bestselling book by James Bradley with Ron Powers about the five United States Marines and one United States Navy Corpsman who would eventually be made famous by Joe Rosenthal's lauded photograph of the flag raising at Iwo Jima, one of the costliest and most horrifying battles of World War II's Pacific Theater. The flag raisers included John Bradley (a Navy corpsman, and the author's father), Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, Mike Strank, Harlon Block, and Franklin Sousley; the latter three men died later in the battle. Strank was a Sergeant who refused several promotions during the battle in order to "Bring his boys back to their mothers." Block was a Corporal who reported to Strank, and the rest were Privates in the Marines, except for John Bradley, a Navy Corpsman who administered first aid to Easy Company of 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, the company to which all the flag raisers were assigned. The book, published in May 2000 by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, spent 46 weeks on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list, spending six weeks at number one. Shortly after the book's publication, Steven Spielberg acquired the option on the film rights for DreamWorks Pictures.