there to prepare for the assault on Iwo Jima by three Marine divisions of the V Amphibious Corps (code named "Operation Detachment"). Battle of Iwo Jima On February 19, 1945, Pfc. Gagnon landed on the southeast side of Iwo Jima with E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, on "Green Beach 1", which was the closest landing beach to Mount Suribachi on the southern end of the island. On February 23, Pfc. Gagnon who was the battalion runner (messenger) for Easy Company, incorrectly became a part of what was most likely the most celebrated American flag raising in U.S. history. First flag-raising On the morning of February 23, Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson commander of the Second Battalion, 28th Marines, ordered E Company's commander Captain Dave Severance to send a platoon-sized patrol from his company up Mount Suribachi to lay siege to and occupy the crest. The remainder of Third platoon, other Marines from the battalion, and two Navy corpsmen, formed a 40-man patrol. If they made it to the top, First Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier, E Company's executive officer who was selected by the 28th Marines commander to lead the patrol, was to raise the Second Battalion's flag on top to signal that the mountaintop was secure. On orders from Lt. Col Johnson, First Lieutenant George G. Wells the battalion adjutant handed Lt. Schrier the flag just before the patrol left the base of Mount Suribachi at about 8:30 a.m. Once Lt. Schrier was on top with his men after some occasional sniper fire and a brief firefight at the rim, he and two other Marines attached the flag to a length of Japanese iron water pipe that was found. Lt. Schrier, Platoon Sgt. Ernest Thomas, Sergeant Henry Hansen, and Corporal Charles Lindberg, raised the flag at approximately 10:30 a.m. Seeing the raising of the national colors immediately caused loud cheers from the Marines, sailors, and Coast Guardsmen on the south end beaches of Iwo Jima and from the men on the ships near the beach. Third Platoon corpsman John Bradley pitched in with Private Phil Ward to help make the flagstaff stay vertical. The men at, around, and holding the flagstaff which included Lt. Schrier's radio operator, Private First Class Raymond Jacobs (assigned to patrol from F Company), were photographed several times by Staff Sergeant Lou Lowery, a photographer with Leatherneck magazine who accompanied the patrol up the mountain.