I was PFC Raymond Jacobs,the radioman with F Company 2nd Battalion 28th Marines.About 40 minutes earlier I had been assigned to accompany an E Company combat patrol for the climb up Suribachi to supply communications between
the patrol and battalion.The patrol was led by Lt.Harold Shrier,E Company XO.
At the top I watched as Lt.Shrier,Sgts.Henry Hansen and Ernest Thomas,Cpl.Charles Lindberg and Pvt Phil Ward secured the flag to a piece of Japanese water pipe.Joined by PhM2c John Bradley they walked the flag and pipe over to the high ground,jammed it into the ground and raised the flag.
Leatherneck cameraman Sgt.Lou Lowery had been with the patrol since it was formed.He faithfully followed the patrol taking pictures of the people and our movements every step of the way.In particular,he shot about a dozen pictures of the group of eight people most associated with the flag raising.Lowery's pictures clearly show the faces of those people.
Yet for decades the official Marine Corps record of that event has failed to identify or misidentified five of the people pictured in Lowery's photos?
Obviously,given the time and place,no one was interested in gathering names for the record...but there were other forces at work.
Two hours later photographer Joe Rosenthal snapped a picture of five Marines and a Corpsman raising a replacement flag for the smaller original flag.His picture rightly captured the imagination of the American public.It was a masterpiece of photography and gave a tremendous boost to the image of the Marine Corps in the eyes of the public.
That picture,Lowery's pictures and the story of the first flag raisingTime/Life suggested Rosenthal's picture was posed and brought up Lowerys' pictures.Associated Press,owners of Rosenthal's pictures, threatened law suits.The Marine Corps was caught in the middle.Then Commandant General A.A. Vandergrift called both parties to his office and worked a compromise.AP dropped the law suits,Time/Life sort of retracted and the Marine Corps got unrestricted use of Rosenthal's picture.To make it work Vandergrift ordered Lowery's pictures and the story of the first flag raising suppressed.Even though that ban was lifted about 2 1/2 years later the effect of that suppression has continued over the years in the way the story of the first flag raising and Lowery's pictures are downplayed or ignored.There has never been an official research effort made to identify the men involved.
I tried to get officials interested in the correct identities of the Marines involved starting with a letter to Lou Lowery in 1947 followed by a dozen more tries over the years.No interest.
Then I retired,learned a little about computers and began surfing the web.That's when I discovered Dick Gaines' Gunny G web site.Dick uses Lowery's classic picture of the first flag raising on his home page.I e mailed him that I was the radioman in that picture.Dick believes in 'Trust but verify' and that's what he did.He did some research,found some early information about me and passed it on to former Marine Ray Fornof who was working to identify all of the people pictured at the first flag raising.That's how it all started.
Our research group now includes former Marines and Navy and some interested civilians.Here's what we have discovered.
The Marine History Center and Leatherneck list the radioman as unknown.They refuse to acknowledge the work of Forensic Photo Analyst James Ebert who told them that I am the radioman in Lowery's Pictures.We were interviewed by reporters shortly after the flag was raised.They continue to ignore the new stories printed in my home town Los Angeles newspapers the day after the flag raising which identify me as being with Shrier's patrol.
They refuse to acknowledge that PhM2c John Bradley is pictured in Lowery's photos gripping the flag pole.He was identified using those pictures by his son James Bradley,author od 'Flags Of Our Fathers'
They refuse to acknowledge that PVT Phil Ward is pictured just in front of Bradley holding the flag pole.Ward has been identified by Charles Lindberg and by his platoon leader retired Major Keith Wells.
They continue to insist that PFC Louis Charlo was a flag raiser.Charlo was an F Company BARman.He had no reason to be there.You will not find him in any Lowery pictures.There is not one shred of evidence that he was there.
The bottom line here is that dispite the photographic proof,the personal identifications and the work of the forensic photo analyst the official line of the Marine History Center and Leatherneck is that none of this happened.They continue to support and distribute to writers,reporters and the general public a flawed story of the first flag raising that incorrectly identifies most of the men there and has no basis in fact and is just plain wrong.
Yep--that's what he wrote alright!!!!!!!!!!
I wonder how many Marines it would take to plant the American Flag in Michael Moore's valley.