page_title: Dave Severance
section_title: Second flag raising
hierarchical_section_title: Dave Severance / World War II / Battle of Iwo Jima / Second flag raising
caption_attribution_description: English: Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, by Joe Rosenthal.
context_page_description: Dave E. Severance is a retired United States Marine Corps colonel and a centenarian. During World War II, he served as the commanding officer of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines and led his company in the battle of Iwo Jima. During the battle, Severance ordered his 3rd Platoon to scale Mount Suribachi and raise the flag at the summit.
context_section_description: When Lieutenant Colonel Johnson received word of Forrestal's wish, he angrily remarked "The hell with that!" Johnson wanted to retrieve the flag as soon as possible since he believed the flag belonged to his battalion. Johnson then sent his assistant operations officer, Second Lieutenant Ted Tuttle, down to the beach to secure a larger flag to raise over Suribachi.
  Johnson then ordered Severance to have his Marines lay a telephone wire up to the top of Suribachi. Severance ordered four Marines from 2nd Platoon, Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal Harlon Block, and Private First Classes Ira Hayes and Franklin Sousley to reel a telephone wire up the mountain from the battalion command post. He then sent his runner, Private First Class Rene Gagnon, to the battalion command post to obtain radio batteries for Schrier. As the five Marines arrived at the command post, Tuttle also returned to Johnson with a 96 by 56 inch flag which he had acquired from USS LST-779. Johnson handed the flag to Gagnon and then told Strank to raise the second flag and have Schrier "save the small flag for me."
  Strank then led the small group up Suribachi; where Strank, Block, Hayes, Sousley, and Private First Classes Harold Schultz and Harold Keller raised the second flag. The second flag raising was captured in the famous photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal. The first flag was brought back down Suribachi and returned to Lieutenant Colonel Johnson, who promptly placed it in the battalion safe.
caption: Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press
exif: {"Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.10.8", "Image DateTime": "2019:04:06 14:35:24", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "256", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "193", "Thumbnail BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail PhotometricInterpretation": "6", "Thumbnail SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "230", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7353"}