Harold Schultz

Harold Schultz was born and raised in Detroit, the son of Karl Albert (1893–1956) and Marie Martha Schultz (1898–1985).

He attended Southwestern High School, where he was a classmate of Stan Lopata.

On the morning of February 23, a 40-man patrol mostly from the Third Platoon, E Company, Second Battalion, 28th Marines, climbed up Mount Suribachi.

After some sniper fire and a brief firefight at the rim of the volcano, they succeeded in capturing the mountain and raising the American flag on the summit.

Pfc.

Schultz was part of the patrol, and one of the Marines who guarded the flag raisers and some others with them during and after the flag raising.

This flag was replaced hours later with a larger flag by four Marines from Second Platoon who came up to raise it, and Pfc.

Schultz and Private First Class Harold Keller, who also was a member of Lt. Schrier's patrol.

On March 13, Pfc.

Schultz was wounded in action (WIA) and was evacuated off the island.

Harold Henry Schultz (January 28, 1925 – May 16, 1995) was a United States Marine corporal who was wounded in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

The 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division landed on the southeast part of the island closest to where Mount Suribachi was located.

The 28th Marines mission was to capture Mount Suribachi on the first day, but due to the heavy fighting they encountered from the Japanese, that did not happen.

The 28th Marines reached the east side of the mountain on February 21, and by the evening of February 22, the regiment had most of the mountain surrounded.

Schultz entered the Marine Corps Reserve on December 23, 1943, from Detroit, Michigan.

He was a member Easy (E) Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division which was activated in 1944 and began training at Camp Pendleton.

In September, the division was sent to Camp Tarawa near Hilo, Hawaii, for further training to prepare for the invasion of Iwo Jima.

He was a member of the patrol that captured the top of Mount Suribachi and raised the first U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945.

He is also one of the six Marines who raised the larger replacement flag on the mountaintop the same day as shown in the iconic photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.

The first flag flown over Mount Suribachi at the south end of Iwo Jima was regarded to be too small to be seen by the thousands of Marines fighting on the other side of the mountain, so it was replaced by the second one.

Although there were photographs taken of the first flag flying on Mount Suribachi including some of Schultz, there is no photograph of Marines raising the first flag.

The second flag-raising became famous and took precedence over the first flag-raising after copies of the second flag-raising photograph appeared in newspapers two days later.

The second flag-raising was also filmed in color.

In January 1945, the division left Hawaii and sailed for Iwo Jima.

Schultz participated in the battle of Iwo Jima, which began on February 19.

On February 23, together with five Marines, he helped raise the second and larger flag atop Mount Suribachi that day.

He was wounded in action on March 13 and evacuated off the island.

He was honorably discharged with the rank of corporal on October 17, 1945.

The 4th and 5th Marine Division assault forces landed on Iwo Jima, on February 19, 1945.

At 8:00 am on February 23, 1945, Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson, the Second Battalion, 28th Marines, commander, ordered a platoon size patrol to climb up Mount Suribachi to seize and occupy the crest.

Captain Dave Severance, E Company's commander, assembled the remainder of Third Platoon and other members of the battalion to form a 40-man patrol that included two Navy corpsmen and stretcher bearers.

First Lieutenant Harold Schrier, E Company's executive officer, volunteered to lead the patrol.

After being discharged from the Marines, he moved to Los Angeles and worked as a mail sorter for the United States Postal Service until retiring in 1981.

Schultz never had children.

In his youth he lost a fiancée named Mary to a brain tumor, and did not marry until his 60s, when he wed his neighbor Rita Reyes.

Schultz was not recognized as one of the second flag-raisers until the Marine Corps announced on June 23, 2016, after an investigation, that he was in the historic photograph which was taken by combat photographer Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press.

The Marine Corps also stated that Schultz was incorrectly identified as Private First Class Franklin Sousley in the photograph.

Sousley himself was also incorrectly identified as Navy corpsman John Bradley, who they determined is not in the photo.

Schultz is one of three Marines in the photograph who were not originally identified as flag raisers.

The Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, is modeled after the historic photograph of six Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima.