At 8:00 am on February 23, 1945, Lt. 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, then assembled the remainder of his Third Platoon and other members of the battalion which included two Navy corpsmen and stretcher bearers. First Lieutenant Harold Schrier, E Company's executive officer, who volunteered to lead the patrol, was to raise the battalion's American flag if possible to signal that the mountaintop was secure. The patrol left at about 8:30. Along the way up which was difficult climbing at times, there was a small number of shots from Japanese snipers. When Lt. Schrier and his men reached the rim of the volcano, there was a skirmish which they soon overcame. After a Japanese iron water pipe was found to use as a flagpole, the battalion's American flag was tied to it by Lt. Schrier, Sergeant Henry Hansen, and Corporal Charles Lindberg.