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Marine Iwo Jima replica returns

Once planted off I-4, the replica of the Iwo Jima flag-raising monument made way for highway expansion.

By MARLON A. WALKER
Published February 18, 2006

POLK CITY - For years and years, drivers heading from Tampa to Orlando saw a roadside replica of the Iwo Jima memorial along Interstate 4.

But the man behind the monument died. Then the state said it needed to be moved to accommodate widening the interstate.

The monument itself nearly slipped away.

Out of public view since 2002, the monument will soon return to a prominent spot by I-4 thanks to a group of veterans and an act of the Legislature. A ceremony today will celebrate those efforts, though the monument won't be moved until $200,000 is raised to cover the cost.

Standing 9 feet high and 11 feet wide, the bronze molding in bas-relief of The Flag Raising on Iwo Jima was crafted by the same sculptor who made the famous 48-foot version for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va.

Both are based on a photograph of servicemen raising a U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945.

The Interstate 4 sculpture was the pet project of Ellwood Robinson "Bob" Pipping Jr., who commissioned it in the '80s.

Pipping didn't talk much about his life, said his daughter, Alice Skipper, 39, of Lakeland. Mostly, they knew he was a good dad who worked his citrus groves - and loved the Navy.

Pipping, born in Philadelphia and raised in Lakeland, enlisted in the Navy at 17 and served overseas during World War II.

He waved American flags from tall poles in each of his groves in Fort Meade and Highlands County as a tribute to military men and women. But he wanted to do something more, which is how he seized on the idea of the Iwo Jima memorial replica.

He commissioned sculptor Felix de Weldon, who had done the 48-foot piece in Arlington, to create a smaller version he would place on one of his citrus groves beside I-4.

"(Pipping) wanted to do something to honor all vets," said Larry McLaughlin, 71, a retired Marine and Lakeland resident. He and Pipping met in the '90s and began to share their mutual interest in the battle of Iwo Jima.

In 1984, de Weldon started on the piece, which was first displayed in 1988. The monument thrived under Pipping's watch but began to falter after he died in a car accident in 1999.

The state threatened to do away with the monument when planning to expand I-4 began in 2002. At the time, the monument sat a few feet from the eastbound lanes at mile marker 42.

The rest area at mile marker 46, 4 miles from the original location, was picked as a permanent home. McLaughlin said it will cost roughly $200,000 to move the monument and set it up.

The sun shines off the monument at its post just inside the confines of Fantasy of Flight off Exit 44. In the wind, the flag at the monument's peak whips back and forth. That's the way, McLaughlin said, the monument is supposed to look. And soon, that's once again how the public will see it.

WHAT: Iwo Jima Monument Inc. will hold a dedication and fundraiser.

WHEN: 11 a.m. today.

WHERE: Fantasy of Flight (1400 Broadway Blvd. SE in Polk City - Exit 44 on Interstate 4).

FOR INFORMATION: Go to www.iwojimamonument.org or call Larry McLaughlin at 863 682-8005.

[Last modified February 18, 2006, 01:59:08]