Short answers, pulled from the story.
The battle began at 08:59 on the 19th of February 1945 with Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi commanding the Japanese defense. Kuribayashi took command by June 1944 and designed a strategy that avoided beach defenses in favor of deep tunnel networks.
Kuribayashi constructed hundreds of hidden artillery positions and a vast tunnel network connecting disparate fighting areas. The Nanpo Bunker held enough food, water, and ammunition for three months and sat 90 feet underground while five hundred 55-gallon drums stored fuel inside the complex.
Six Navajo code talkers worked around the clock under Major Howard Connor to send over 800 messages without error during the first two days. Only 28 non-Navajos could speak the language making it impossible for enemies to decipher their communications.
The second flag flew until the 14th of March when an official ceremony raised another American flag at the V Amphibious Corps command post near the mountain. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal landed on the beach and wanted the first flag as a souvenir so Johnson sent a larger replacement flag up the volcano.
William V. Pratt stated that only ten missions were flown from Iwo Jima using P-51 Mustangs to escort B-29 Superfortress bombers proving both impractical and unnecessary. Of nearly 2,000 B-29s landing between May and July 1945 more than 80 percent were for routine refueling rather than emergencies.
The Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial dedicated on the 10th of November 1954 stands adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery with the Washington Monument visible in the distance. On the 19th of February 1985 an event called the Reunion of Honor took place on the beach where U.S. forces landed forty years after the initial assault.