From 19 to 23 February, the 28th Marines fought to secure Mount Suribachi. Progress was initially slow and measured in yards as they had to fight their way through hundreds of layered and mutually supporting Japanese pillboxes, blockhouses, spiderholes, and strongpoints. By the morning of 23 February, Suribachi had been encircled. Col. Liversledge called for a reconnaissance patrol to scale the mountain a find a path to the top if possible. Chosen for the mission was the 3rd Platoon, Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines. These men reached the summit at approximately 1020 and proceeded to raise a U.S. flag. It was the raising of this flag that led the then Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, to comment that ...the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years. Fearing that the flag would be taken by higher-ups, Lt. Col. Chandler W. Johnson, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, ordered a second patrol to the top of the mountain to replace the flag with a larger one that could later be given to any senior ranking personnel that wanted it as he intended for the first flag to remain with the battalion. It was the raising of this second flag that was caught on film by Joe Rosenthal and would become the iconic photo of the battle.