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3700 RIO GRANDE BLVD. N.W.,SUITE 3
ALBUQERQUE,NEW MEXICO 87107-3042
(505)344-2345
August 9,2004
Raymond Jacobs
1432 Mt.Diablo Circle
Dear Ray:
Thank you for trusting me with your photographs,which I have spent some time analyzing.as you know ,I am a forensic photogrammetrist and have considerable experience in making and evaluating identifications of individuals depicted in photographs,video,and other sorts of images.In making comparisons of individuals in such images,I use digital image processing to optimize the visibility of facial and other details,to examine them closely,and sometimes also use digital imaging and mapping techniques to make comparative measurements.
When you first sent me copies of the photographs taken by Sgt.Lou Lowery on February 23,1945 at the first raising atop Mt.Suribachi on Iwo Jima ,and other photographs of you taken at various times,I explained to you in some detail my professional"philosophy" regarding the indentification of individuals in photographs.Identifications and comparisons of individuals depicted in images are sometimes difficult or impossible for a number of reasons. Many different people look very much the same,and conversely ,a single "known"individual can look quite different in photographs taken even a short time apart. Differences in the resolution and the conditions under which photographs were taken often make comparisons difficult too, and in my experience high quality, original negatives or photo prints ,especially for older photos, are almost never available.
When I make comparisons of indiviuals in photographs and other images,I always look first for"unique" identifying patterns, such things as patterns of freckles or moles,distinctive scars, broken or crooked teeth,or other things that would be exceedingly unlikely to occur in two seperate individuals.I did not find any such unique patterns in the photographs you sent me.As you suggested to me,the young Ray Jacobs didn`t have such facial "defects",but even if he had theymight very well have been undetectable because of the quality and reslution of the photographs,particlarly the Lowery photographs you obtained from Leatherneck Magazine,which upon close inspection I have concluded are some sort of photomechanicl or at least multi-generational photo copies.
Given images like that,what I would do to illustrate that the radioman on Mt.Suribachi in the Lowery pictures is you would be just what you already did in your "Eyewitness Account" book: to scale and juxtapose comparable photos known to be you next to the Lowrey pictures and note the similarities.and the similarities between the "Known" Ray Jacobs in the photos you sent me,and the radioman in Lowrey`s Mt. Suribachi photos, are striking..
Just as important ,however is the lack of dissimilarities ,which brings me to the culmination of my professional philosophy regarding identifications of individuals from photographs .First I do not think any suggestion of a "postive identification" can or should be made based on any single type of physical evidence,be it photographic comparisons, fingerprints,bite marks,or whatever ,particularly in any legal case. In cases such as the identification of Ray Jacobs as the radioman on Mt.Suribachi ,however,a a line of reasoning is,I think ,more germane :whether ,givin the physical evidence that is available-i.e the photographs - there is any reason to believe that the radioman is not Ray
Jacobs.
And based on the photographic evidence I have seen,there isn`t . One way to state my conclusion is that if I were given the photos you sent,and asked ,and the Lowrey photos ,and asked to try to illustrate that the radioman was not Ray Jacobs,I could not do so.another way to state this conclusion is that ,based on my experience in the identification of individuals in photographs ,and on my examination of the photos you sent that we know are you .when I look at the radioman in the Lowery photographs I am looking at Ray Jacobs.
I also need to comment here in regard to the Lowrey photo of the radioman from behind ,looking out to sea,and the markings on his canteen cover .Given the data I have,a chemical photo print sent to me by Col.Dave E. Severance ,USMC (Ret.), and a digital version of the same image sent by Col.W.G.Ford ,USMC (Ret)the editor of Leatherneck Magazine, I can easily conclude that the radioman is the same individual as that depicted in the other Lowrey photos,but I cannot decipher the name on the canteen cover> when one can`t unambiguously read printing or writing in a photo,image processing techniques will not "magically"recover details that aren`t inherent in the image . In such a case everyone,including me,is reduced to simply guessing.And . And when I do this ,I see what looks to me like seven characters,spelling out something like"Cachall"or "Gachall",or perhaps "Gabrial".
In a number of past forensic cases in which objects or details were just too "fuzzy" in a photograph to allow unambiguous identification,I have used an essentially reverse technique of making an image of an exempler object and intentionally blurring and otherwise distorting the image of the exempler to make it comparable to the fuzzy image.If the printing on the radioman`s canteen cover were stencilled and the same kind of stencil could be located ,such a reverse imaging technique might be used to further contentions of what the printing said.Based on the photographic data I have examined ,however ,it wouldn`t change my opinion that the radioman shown in the Lowery photos taken on Mt.Suribachi is Ray Jacobs.
Sincerely,
James I.Ebert,PhD
Certified Photogrammetrist(ASPRS)
Fellow,American Academy of Forensic Sciences |