Henry Oliver Hansen

Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.

Marine Staff Sgt. Lou Lowery's photograph of the first U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi, after it was raised.
Left to right: 1st Lt. Harold G. Schrier (left side of radioman), Pfc. Raymond Jacobs (radioman), Sgt. Henry Hansen (soft cap, holding flagstaff), Pvt. Phil Ward (holding lower flagstaff), Plt. Sgt. Ernest Thomas (seated), PhM2c. John Bradley, USN (standing above Pvt. Ward, holding flagstaff) Pfc. James Michels (holding M1 carbine), and Cpl. Charles W. Lindberg (standing above Michels).

Hansen volunteered for the Paramarines, which were formed in 1942, and became a Marine parachutist. He fought in the Bougainville Campaign in 1943. In February 1944, the Paramarines were disbanded and he was transferred to Third Platoon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, California.

Hansen landed with the 5th marine Division on Iwo Jima, on February 19, 1945. He landed with his rifle company and battalion at the southern end of Iwo Jima where Mount Suribachi is located.

On February 23, 1945, Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, ordered a platoon-size patrol to climb up 556-foot Mount Suribachi. Captain Dave Severance, E Company's commander, assembled the remainder of his Third Platoon and other members of the battalion headquarters including two Navy corpsmen and stretcher bearers. First Lieutenant Harold Schrier, E Company's executive officer, was handed the Second Battalion's American flag from Lt. Colonel Johnson (or the battalion adjutant);[4] the flag measured 28 by 54 inches (137 by 71 cm) and had been taken from the attack transport USS Missoula (APA-211) on the way to Iwo Jima by First Lieutenant George G. Wells the Second Battalion's adjutant in charge of the battalion's flags.[5] Lt. Schrier was to it take a patrol with the flag up the mountain and raise the flag if possible at the summit to signal that Mount Suribachi was captured and the top secure. At 8:30 a.m., Lt. Schrier started climbing with the patrol up the mountain. Less than an hour later, the patrol, after receiving occasional Japanese sniper fire, reached the rim of the volcano. After a brief firefight there, Lt. Schrier and his men captured the summit.

A section of a Japanese steel water pipe was found on the mountain and the battalion's flag Lt. Schrier carried was tied on to it by Lt. Schrier, Sgt. Hansen and Cpl. Charles Lindberg (Platoon Sergeant Ernest Thomas was watching inside the group with a grenade in his hand while Pvt. Phil Ward held the bottom of the pipe horizontally off the ground). The flagstaff was then carried to the highest part on the crater and raised by Lt. Schrier, Platoon Sgt. Thomas, Sgt. Hansen,[6][7][1] and Cpl. Lindberg[8] at approximately 10:30 a.m.[9] Seeing the national colors flying caused loud cheering with some gunfire from the Marines, sailors, and Coast Guardsmen on the beach below and from the men on the ships near and docked at the beach; ships' whistles and horns sounded too. There were strong winds on Mount Suribachi, so Hansen, Pvt. Ward, and Third Platoon corpsman John Bradley helped make the flagstaff stay in a vertical position. The men at, around, and holding the flagstaff which included Schrier's radioman Raymond Jacobs (assigned to patrol from F Company), were photographed several times by Staff Sgt. Louis R. Lowery, a photographer with Leatherneck magazine who accompanied the patrol up the mountain.[10][11] A firefight with some Japanese soldiers took place, and an enemy grenade caused Sgt. Lowery to fall several feet down the side of the crater, damaging his camera but not his film.

On February 24, Lt. Schrier ordered Plt. Sgt. Thomas to report early the next morning to Marine Lieutenant General Holland Smith aboard Navy Vice Admiral Richmond K. Turner's flagship the USS Eldorado (AGC-11) about the flag raising on Mount Suribachi. On February 25, Platoon Sgt. Thomas met with the two commanders and during an interview with a CBS news broadcaster aboard ship he named Lt. Schrier, Sgt. Hansen, and himself as the actual flag-raisers.[1] Rosenthal's photograph of the second raising appeared in the newspapers the same day as Thomas's interview. Platoon Sgt. Thomas was killed on March 3[1] and Sgt. Hansen was killed on March 1.

Marine Corps photo of the two flags on Mount Suribachi

Joe Rosenthal's "Gung Ho" photo. Sgt. Hansen (soft cap), center

Lt. Col. Johnson determined that a larger flag should replace the original flag, which was too small to be seen on the north side of Mount Suribachi where thousands of Marines were fighting most of the Japanese. A 96 by 56 inch flag was obtained from a ship docked on shore and brought up to the top of Mount Suribachi by Pfc. Rene Gagnon, the Second Battalion's runner (messenger) for E Company.[4] At the same time, Sgt. Michael Strank, Cpl. Harlon Block, Pfc. Franklin Sousley, and Pfc. Ira Hayes from Second Platoon, E Company, were sent to take communication wire (or supplies) up to the Third Platoon and raise the second flag. Once on top, the flag was attached to another Japanese steel pipe. Shortly before 1 p.m., Lt. Schrier ordered the second flag raised and the first flag lowered. The four Marines and Pfc. Harold Schultz[12] and Pfc. Harold Keller (both members of Lt. Schrier's patrol)[13] raised the larger flag at the same time three Marines and Pfc. Gagnon lowered the first flagstaff.[3] Afterwards, Pfc. Gagnon removed the flag and took it down the mountain to the battalion adjutant.[4]

The Marines who captured Mount Suribachi and those who raised the first flag generally did not receive national recognition even though the first flag raising had received some public recognition first. The black-and-white photograph of the second flag raising by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press became world-famous after appearing in the newspapers as the flag raising on Iwo Jima. Marine combat photographer Sergeant William Genaust, who had accompanied Rosenthal and Marine photographer Pvt. Robert Campbell up Mount Suribachi, filmed the second flag raising in color and it was used in newsreels.[14] Other combat photographers ascended the mountain after the first flag was raised and the mountaintop secured. These photographers including Rosenthal and Pfc. George Burns an army photographer who was assigned to cover Marine amphibious landings for Yank Magazine, took photos of Marines (including Sgt. Hansen), corpsmen, and themselves around both of the flags. The second flag-raisers received national recognition. After the replacement flag was raised, sixteen Marines, including Schrier and Hansen, and two Navy corpsmen (John Bradley and Gerald Ziehme from the 40-man patrol) posed together for Rosenthal around the base of the flagstaff.

On March 14, an American flag was officially raised up a flagpole by orders of Lieutenant General Holland Smith at the V Amphibious Corps command post on the other side of Mount Suribachi where the 3rd Marine Division troops were located, and the second flag which was raised on February 23 on Mount Suribachi came down. Lt. Col. Johnson was killed in action on March 2. Sgt. Genaust was killed on March 4 in a Japanese cave on Iwo Jima, and his remains are still missing. Sgt. Strank and Cpl. Block were killed on March 1, and Pfc. Sousley was killed on March 21.

Sgt. Hansen was killed in action on Iwo Jima on March 1. Sgt. Hansen, Platoon Sgt. Thomas, and the three second flag-raisers who were killed on Iwo Jima were buried in the 5th Marine Division cemetery on the island. The battle of Iwo Jima officially ended on March 26, 1945, and the next day the 28th Marines left the island for Hawaii. Hansen's final burial was at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific near Honolulu on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.