Three United States Marines have returned to Cuba to raise the U.S. flag 54 years after taking it down.

James Tracy, Mike East, and Larry Morris, now retired, lowered the U.S. flag in a silent ceremony held in Havana, Cuba on Jan. 4, 1961, Fox News Latino reported. Hundreds of Cubans gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in the Caribbean island's capital, hoping to obtain a visa to the U.S. Back then, Cuba was in the midst of a communist revolution.

The trio will return to Cuba on Friday together with Secretary of the State John Kerry, Aljazeera wrote. Despite their brief stay in Cuba, the former service members all have special memories in the nation. Their task back then wasn't easy, and while they could have just taken down the flag and head back inside the Embassy, they chose to fold the flag to exhibit the event's importance.

"That was a touching moment," East, now 76, said in a video from the U.S Department of State, as quoted by Fox News Latino. "To see Old Glory flying for the last time in Cuba, it just didn't seem right."

Morris said that he enjoyed Cuba and the people that any place he has ever been in, the news outlet added.

"We're doing something that not too many Marines have ever done," Morris said, as quoted by The New York Times. "It's thrilling."

Aljazeera's source from the State Department said that the flag the three former Marines took down in 1961 isn't going to be the same one they will erect in Cuba on Friday.

Tracy, now 78, said that he would love to see the U.S. flag go back up in Cuba, a sign of the renewal of diplomatic relations between the two countries embarked on by U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuba's President Raul Castro in December, Aljazeera added.

Kerry's presence in the ceremony marks him as the highest U.S. government official to visit the island after their severed relationship, Fox News Latino took note. The move is also expected to lead to a possible visit by Obama before his presidential term ends.

Castro took over the presidency after his older brother and former Cuban President, Fidel Castro, stepped down in 2006 due to health problems, Aljazeera wrote. The older Castro's rise to power in the late 1950s gave way to a socialist government heavily critical of America's policies and vision.

Fidel's newspaper column marking his 89^th birthday was still critical of the U.S., asserting that the latter owes Cuba "numerous millions of dollars" for the damage caused by embargo, the news outlet noted.