Mortar fire on Iwo Jima would seriously wound Robert O'Neil. Corporal Eugene Jones took the picture and O'Neil would say he wanted to yell "Put the camera down and pick up a rifle and fight!  I had a mouth full of blood and teeth chips and was trying to get my jaw to spit and up comes this camera."
The Marine Corps logbook indicates the picture was taken on February 20, 1945.  The sequence of pictures was taken from the 19th through the 21st and Jones was with the 4th Division.  
Nick spoke of them running up on Iwo Jima and of O'Neil looking for a place to hit the deck.  The blast went off just above O'Neil snapping him up and over.  When Nick got to his buddy, he was laying with his hands at the sides of his face.  At some point, O'Neil is doing his best to get out "move on, go", but Nick said he wasn't going to leave his buddy there. O'Neil thought he would die on the island and said "I was laying there choking on my own blood and heard, the hell you are!" Continued below:

 
"They took me down on the ship and fastened me to the side. From my vantage point it didn't look good. Men were either dead or dying. The ship was moving up and down and I was going in and out and getting sick. At some point I was being moved and groaned. I heard them say this one's not dead. The next thing I awoke to being given a bath. I looked up and this nurse looks at me and says Mr. O'Neil, you are going to be ok." 
O'Neil was sent back to Crane, Indiana to finish out his service.