| The First Flag-Raising On Iwo Jima |
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"Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue!"
(Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN, 16 March 1945)
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Early on the 23rd of February 1945 a small patrol from Company F, 2d Battalion, started to reconnoiter suitable routes to scale the slopes of Mount Suribachi. The patrol leader, Sergeant Sherman Watson, reported as he went along that the Japanese were holed up. Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson, the Battalion commander, decided to send a 40-man combat patrol (remnants of the 3rd Platoon of Company E, and a handful of men from
battalion headquarters) under command of First Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier, the Company E executive officer, to seize and occupy the crest. Sergeant Louis R. Lowery, a photographer from Leatherneck magazine, attached himself to the patrol to record in detail the attempt against Suribachi.After Lieutenant Colonel Johnson had outlined the mission, he handed Lieutenant Schrier a flag to be raised if the patrol gained its objective. This small (54 by 28 inches) flag had been brought ashore from the attack transport Missoula by First Lieutenant George G. Wells, the battalion adjutant.
The patrol reached the rim of the crater at about 1015. As the Marines scrambled over the lip, a small defending force challenged the patrol and a short, hot fight developed. Even while this skirmish was in progress, some of the men located a length of Japanese iron pipe, secured the small American flag to one end and First Lieutenant Harold Schrier, platoon commander, Sergeant Ernest I. Thomas, platoon sergeant, Corporal Charles W. Lindberg, and Private First Class James R. Michels raised the Star and Stripes at 1020*. It was an inspiring sight for thousands of Americans on Iwo Jima as the flag waved bravely from the summit.
Corporal Charles W. Lindberg, the sole member of this first flag raising still alive in 1994, later remembered the event like this: "We found a water pipe, tied the flag to it and put it up. Then all hell broke loose below. Troops cheered, ships blew horns and whistles and some men openly wept. It was a sight to behold...something a man doesn't forget**."
In addition to Corporal Lindberg, those who took part in this flag raising were First Lieutenant Schrier, Platoon Sergeant Ernest I. Thomas Jr., Sergeant Henry O. Hansen, Private First Class Louis C. Charlo and Private First Class James Michels. The event was photographed by Sergeant Lowery.
* 28th Marines War Diary, in 5th Marine Division War Diary. Feb 45
** Qouted in Danny J. Crawford's, "The Flag Raising of Mount Suribachi,"
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