I don't know - but maybe he was there every minute with his unit, and just happened to be standing off to the side when the photo was taken, so felt entitled to some recognition anyway. He's no longer around to tell us, as I understand.
Im talking about the Historian for Gods sakes, NOT Bradley. Bradley wasn’t distasteful. The low life researcher going over minutiae decades later and thinking he can explain Suribachi is the low life.