Guest Column: History Overlooked Iwo Jima’s First Flag By Raymond Jacobs

Both the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center and Leatherneck magazine have published and continue to distribute incorrect information about the identities of the Marines present at the first flag-raising on Iwo Jima 60 years ago today.

How this came about has its beginnings in the well-documented fact that the story and photographs of the first flag-raising were hushed up for many years on orders from the highest level of the Marine Corps.

Most of the Marines and Navy Corpsmen involved were killed on Iwo or have since died. As a result, stories in Leatherneck and the records at the Marine Historical Center describing the first flag-raising have relied on information provided by people who were not there and have no direct knowledge of the event. Specifically, Leatherneck and the Historical Center records name people who were not on Suribachi at the time and fail to identify others who were there.

Marine Radioman Raymond Jacobs, partially obscured at left wearing combat radio, was with the first group of Marines to raise the American flag on Iwo Jima

As an eyewitness to the flag raising, I have long appealed to Marine Corps officials to take a fresh look at the event. To support my plea, I have presented to them hard proof that I was with the patrol on Mount Suribachi. I have also offered corrections to the misidentifications now part of the official record.

Sixty years ago, two American flags were raised on Mount Suribachi. The second flag-raising was captured on film in a justly acclaimed photograph shot by civilian photographer Joe Rosenthal showing five Marines and a Navy Corpsman straining to raise our colors on that mountaintop. But the Rosenthal photograph was actually a picture of the replacement of the first flag raised, with a second, much larger flag more easily seen by the Marines still fighting on Iwo Jima. Rosenthal’s last-minute snapshot of that replacement turned out to be a masterpiece of composition that deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize. His picture was given a top priority, transmitted to the United States and quickly published around the world.

An Associated Press report on the San Francisco Examiner photographer ten years ago noted:

“It has been called the greatest photograph of all time. It may well be the most widely reproduced. It served as the symbol for the Seventh War Loan Drive, for which it was plastered on 3.5 million posters. It was used on a postage stamp and on the cover of countless magazines and newspapers. It served as the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va., a symbol forever of the valor and sacrifices of the U.S. Marines.”

Obscured was the full account of the actual flag-raising that had occurred several hours earlier, when a combat patrol from E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines had climbed to the top, raised the American flag and put down Japanese resistance.

The news of the patrol raising the first flag on Iwo Jima reached the United States some time before Rosenthal’s picture. The story was headlined across the country. When the Rosenthal photo reached the states, it and the story of the first flag-raising became one in the public’s mind.

Leatherneck magazine combat cameraman Sgt. Lou Lowery had shot a photographic record of the E Company patrol from its beginnings through the flag raising. Unfortunately, Sgt.Lowery’s pictures, moving slowly through Navy censorship procedures, were held up for several days then became lost in the excitement over the Rosenthal picture.

The powerful impact of Rosenthal’s flag-raising picture was not lost on the White House or at Marine Headquarters. In a decision made by then Commandant Gen. Alexander “Archie” Vandegrift, Lowery’s photographs were ordered suppressed along with the story and identities of the men involved with the initial flag raising.

This is the true story of what happened on Mount Suribachi that day and the correct identity of the Marines and Corpsmen involved.

Feb. 23, 1945 was a Friday, D+4 on Iwo. After four days of horrific fighting, my regiment, the 28th Marines, had smashed through fierce Japanese resistance to reach the base of Mount Suribachi. Our casualties were heavy.

My unit, F Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, had clawed its way hard up against the caves and boulders around the base of Suribachi. There was no enemy activity on our front that morning. Our fire teams were pushing around the left flank base of the mountain blasting and burning caves while moving toward the far tip of the island.

Shortly after 8 a.m., F Company commander Capt. Arthur Naylor called Sgt. Sherman Watson to our command post He ordered Watson to take a small reconnaissance patrol to the top of Suribachi to look for signs of the enemy. Watson, a combat veteran of several of several Pacific campaigns, returned to his platoon and picked Corporals Ted White and George Mercer, along with BAR gunner Pfc. Louis Charlo to make the climb up Suribachi.

About 40 minutes later, I saw them slipping and sliding down Suribachi’s steep sides on their return. Watson reported to Capt. Naylor that they had seen no signs of the enemy but had seen many emplacements.

Naylor phoned the information to Lt. Col. Chandler Johnson, 2nd Battalion CO, at his command post. Johnson then walked over the E Company CP in battalion reserve. He ordered company commander Capt. Dave Severance to form up a combat patrol to attack and secure the top of Suribachi.

Severance picked his 3rd Platoon, reinforced it and gave command to his XO, Lt. Harold Shrier. Lt. Col. Johnson gave Shrier an American Flag and told him to take it with him.

I was the radioman for F Company. My radio had been shut down since the previous afternoon when battalion had run a telephone line to our CP.

At about the time Shrier’s patrol began to move toward Suribachi, I was told there was a phone call for me on our CP phone. The call was from the battalion communications sergeant telling me that a patrol from E Company would soon be moving through F Company lines. He instructed me to turn on my radio and check in with battalion. I was told that when the E Company patrol came through I was to report to Lt. Shrier and go with his patrol to the top of Suribachi. I was to supply communication between the patrol and battalion.

Climbing Suribachi was difficult. The sides of the mountain were very steep. The ground was broken, pounded into rubble by days of carrier air bombing and artillery shelling. We were often climbing on hands and knees. There was no Japanese resistance as we climbed.

Once at the top, we could see that the crater rim was broad and sloping gradually toward the crater. As I gained the top, I saw a group of Marines gathered around a piece of pipe. I watched as they tied a small American flag to the pipe. The pipe was probably a piece of the pipe used to bring water to the top of the mountain. It was holed in several places, probably from shrapnel.

Lou Lowery’s pictures clearly show Lt. Shrier, Sgts.Ernest Thomas and Henry Hansen, Cpl. Charles Lindberg and me gathered around the pipe. There is also an unknown Marine pictured holding the pipe.

That same group, now joined by Pharmacist’s Mate 2nd Class John Bradley, carried the pipe with our flag attached to the highest point on the crater. They jammed the pipe into the ground, then pushed the pipe and flag upright. The pole was unsteady, so the group of us took turns holding the pipe and stamping dirt and rocks around the base. Finally, it was up. The flag caught the strong breeze, snapping and waving and plain to see.

Almost immediately, we heard cheering and shouting from Marines on the island below. The flag had been seen and as the word passed, it seemed as if everyone on the island began yelling and cheering in joy. Boats beached on the shore and ships at sea joined in sounding whistles and horns. The roar went on and on.

Lt. Shrier walked over to me and asked me to contact Lt. Col. Johnson at his CP. I called the colonel and handed the handset to Shrier, who squatted down next to me and made his report. As he was talking, I noticed movement to my left along the crater. It was a Japanese soldier running out of a cave about 30 yards away. He slapped a grenade against his helmet, arming it, then threw it toward our group around the flagpole.

Minutes after raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi, Marines scrambled to suppress a Japanese counterattack from hidden positions on the rocky slope.

The grenade fell short and exploded, and no one was hit. Sgt. Lowery lost his footing dodging the grenade and slid a short distance down the side of the mountain. He was not hurt but his camera smashed against a rock. His film packs were not exposed or damaged so his record of the patrol was preserved.

The exploding grenade acted as a signal to the remaining Japanese around the crater. They got off a few rounds before the patrol Marines reacted, running toward the shots and taking the enemy under fire. Lt. Shrier shouted directions and soon we were firing at openings in the crater rim while our flamethrower men burned out several points of resistance.

It was intense but brief and soon over. Shrier again radioed Johnson telling him the crater top was secure.

Col. Johnson then told Shrier that a group of service and civilian reporters were asking permission to come to the top of Suribachi. They wanted to get the story of the patrol and the flag raising. Lt. Shrier approved the request.

About 15 or 20 minutes later, as we were sitting around the island side of the crater, we could see a group of people struggling over the rim. It was a mix of civilian and military cameramen and reporters. The reporters spread out approaching us, asking questions about the flag-raising and taking down our names, ranks and home town information. I was interviewed by two reporters.

Their stories, identifying me as being with Lt. Shrier's flag-raising patrol, appeared in my hometown Los Angeles newspapers the next day.

It was now getting on toward noon when the battalion communications sergeant radioed me to tell me that phone lines were being run up to the top of the mountain. He told me that when they were up and running I was relieved and should report back to F Company. A short time later, I got my gear together, reported to Lt. Shrier and started the long slip-and-slide back down Suribachi.

My time with the E Company patrol was over. I had been with them for about 2½ hours. The only name I knew, the only recognizable face, was that of Lt. Harold Shrier. I didn’t know any of the other 40 Marines and Corpsmen and they didn’t know me. Still, I was proud that one F Company Marine alone with 40 others from E Company, operated together for a brief time in what was to become a remarkable moment in Marine Corps history.

Sixty years later, I am still troubled by the official Marine Corps version of the first flag raising.

When Gen. Vandergrift suppressed Lou Lowery’s pictures of the first flag raising, he effectively stopped any inquiry into the identities of those involved. It wasn’t until September 1947, 2½ years after the event, that public pressure forced the release and publication of Lowery’s pictures and the story of the first flag raising.

By then, most of the Marines and Corpsmen involved were dead, discharged or widely scattered. Additionally, there has never been an officially sanctioned search to identify those involved in the first flag-raising as there had been for the names of the men in the Rosenthal picture. Incorrect names were thrown around. Misidentifications made, became accepted and were etched in stone as part of the official version,

As a result, those erroneous identifications have been published and distributed over the years by the Marine Historical Center and Leatherneck magazine.

In text and in captions of Lowery’s picture of the first flag-raising they state as fact that the hands of Lt. Shrier and Pfc. Louis Charlo are seen holding the flag pole upright, their faces hidden behind Sgt. Ernest Thomas. But there are at least five errors in that information:

* Pfc. Charlo was never on Suribachi with Shrier’s patrol. There is not one shred of evidence placing him there. He was a member of Sgt. Watson’s four-man F Company patrol that climbed Suribachi at about 8 a.m. * Lt. Shrier was not holding the flagpole when Lowery shot his picture but can clearly be seen in the image kneeling behind my legs using the radio to talk to Lt. Col. Johnson. * PhM 2nd Class John Bradley is actually one of the men holding the flagpole behind Sgt. Thomas in that picture. Bradley has never been credited with being part of the flag-raising group. * The second man holding the flagpole is not Charlo, but is instead an as-yet unidentified Marine pictured in one of the earlier photos. I have contacted several survivors of E Company but no one has been able to identify him. * No serious attempt was ever made to identify the radioman.

I have presented the Marine Corps with specific proof from three independent sources that I was the radioman with the Shrier patrol. That proof included:

* Lowery’s photographs side by side with personal pictures of me from the same time period. * A report of an examination of those pictures by a forensic photo analyst who concludes that I was that radioman. * Copies of the news stories placing me with Shrier’s patrol at the flag raising.

Why have I spent the past six decades trying to correct the record on the Iwo flag-raising?

The conquest of Mount Suribachi did not signal the end of World War II in the Pacific, nor even the fight for Iwo Jima, where it would take another four weeks of battle that killed a total of 6,821 Americans and nearly all of the 21,000 Japanese defenders. Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal was standing next to Marine commander Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith on the deck of his amphibious command ship when our flag went up. As recounted by historians Normal Polmar and Thomas B. Allen, “At the sight of the first flag, bells and whistles of the offshore fleet sounded and Forrestal turned to [Smith]. ‘Holland,’ Forrestal said, ‘the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.’ ”

For my comrades and me, that simple flag-raising at the pinnacle of Mount Suribachi remains a defining moment not only in U.S. military history but in our own lives as well.

More information on the Battle of Iwo Jima and the flag-raising controversy can be obtained at

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Guest Column: History Overlooked Iwo Jima’s First Flag

I'm no scholar of Iwo Jima in particular, but I've known for a long time that the famous flagraising was staged (for the photographer according to what I recall, could be wrong about that) after the first flag had already been planted.

I'm surprised that anyone, especially anyone so closely affiliated with the USMC would continue to cling to an illusion.

Strange.

the famous flagraising was staged (for the photographer according to what I recall, could be wrong about that) after the first flag had already been planted.

You are half right. The second flag raising was 'staged' but the purpose of the second flag was not to try and obtain the now famous photo.

The first flag was small and not very visible. A group of men were sent up with a larger flag and told to replace it. They did so. In doing so a photographer with them took the picture, but he almost did not get the photo as it all happened so fast. The photo , btw, did not become famous for quite a long time it was taken (weeks or maybe months).

"The Flag-Raisers of Iwo Jima" was aired Sunday 2/20 on the History Channel" and reviewed or referred to here:

http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,IwoJima_Video,00.html

This is an excellent account of both flag raising's and apparently gives an accurate depiction of the events.

My sense is that the Marines didn't suppress the first flag raising so much as FDR/the military wanted to use the second raising, captured fabulously in a photograph, as propaganda to raise money for the war.

At the time the treasury was about broke and they were hoping to raise $8 billion. The campaign centered around the second flag raising, the readily recognized profile and the men in the pic raised $256 billion.

The myth surrounding the staged flag raising arose from an off the cuff remark by Linburg. The first photos were captured as the raising took place.

The pinnacle of the island is some 500ft high and the commander ordered a larger flag so that it could more readily be seen. As this second flag was to be raised, the journalist were given time to locate and set up the positions from which to capture the event.

It is from this perspective that Lindbergh meant the first was spontaneous and in the second instance they were given time to set up....staged.

To those in the line of fire there was nothing staged about it. Lowery who captured the first raising fell into the mouth of the volcano, tumbling down the hill and destroyed his camera. He was able to retrieve the film and send it in for processing. Sadly, he died later in the battle for Iwo Jima which continued on for quite some time. (Hope I got the names right?) God Bless them all.

Trying to find info on my uncle.Read the info on IwoJima flag raising.I know it’s old.My uncle told me (before he died) he was right there just behind the flag raising.He was proud to be a marine.I realize most have passed.Heard from anyone since 2005? Uncle name was Raymond White.

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