# Harold Schultz *United States Marine Corps corporal and flag-raiser on Iwo Jima (1925–1995)* Harold Henry Schultz (January 28, 1925 – May 16, 1995) was a corporal in the United States Marine Corps who fought at Iwo Jima in World War II and was wounded there.[^1] On February 23, 1945, he belonged to the patrol that took the summit of Mount Suribachi and put up the first U.S. flag on the island. He did not help raise that flag. Later the same day he was one of six Marines who raised the larger flag that replaced it, the scene in Joe Rosenthal's Associated Press photograph *Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima*.[^1] He outlived everyone else shown in the image.[^1] Schultz was not credited as one of the second flag-raisers until June 23, 2016. On that date the Marine Corps, after an investigation, announced that he appeared in the photograph and had been mistaken for Private First Class Franklin Sousley.[^1] He is one of three Marines in the photograph who were not at first named as flag-raisers.[^1] The first flag was judged too small to be seen by the thousands of Marines fighting on the far side of the mountain, and a second flag was put up in its place.[^1] Photographs were taken of the first flag flying on the summit, some of them showing Schultz, but no photograph shows that flag being raised.[^1] Copies of Rosenthal's photograph of the second raising ran in newspapers two days later, and that raising was also filmed in color.[^1] ## Biography Schultz grew up in Detroit, where he was born to Karl Albert Schultz (1893–1956) and Marie Martha Schultz (1898–1985). He went to Southwestern High School, where Stan Lopata was a classmate.[^2] Following his discharge he settled in Los Angeles and sorted mail for the United States Postal Service, retiring in 1981.[^2] He had no children. A fiancée, Mary, died of a brain tumor when he was young. He married only in his 60s, to Rita Reyes, who lived next door.[^2] ## U.S. Marine Corps Schultz joined the Marine Corps Reserve from Detroit, Michigan, on December 23, 1943. He served in Easy (E) Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, of the 5th Marine Division. The division was activated in 1944 and trained at Camp Pendleton.[^3] In September it moved to Camp Tarawa, near Hilo, Hawaii, for more training ahead of the Iwo Jima landing. It departed Hawaii for the island in January 1945.[^3] The battle opened on February 19. On February 23, Schultz and five other Marines raised the second, larger flag on Mount Suribachi.[^3] He was wounded on March 13 and evacuated. He received an honorable discharge as a corporal on October 17, 1945.[^3] ### Iwo Jima Assault forces of the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions came ashore on February 19, 1945. The 28th Marines, of the 5th Division, landed on the island's southeast side, the part nearest Mount Suribachi. Their orders were to take the mountain that first day, but heavy fighting with Japanese forces prevented it.[^4] By February 21 the regiment had reached the mountain's east side, and by the evening of February 22 it had surrounded most of it.[^4] On the morning of February 23 a patrol of 40 men went up Mount Suribachi. It was drawn mostly from the Third Platoon of E Company, Second Battalion, 28th Marines. After sniper fire and a short firefight at the volcano's rim, the patrol took the summit and put up the American flag.[^4] Schultz, then a private first class, was in the patrol. He was among the Marines who stood guard over the flag raisers during and after that raising.[^4] ## Marine Corps War Memorial The Marine Corps War Memorial, also called the Iwo Jima Memorial, stands in Arlington, Virginia, and was dedicated on November 10, 1954. Felix de Weldon based the sculpture on the photograph of the second raising.[^5] Since June 23, 2016, Schultz has been identified as the fifth of the 32-foot (9.8 m) bronze figures, counting from the base of the flagstaff. Franklin Sousley has been identified as the third figure rather than the fifth.[^5] President Dwight D. Eisenhower sat in front at the dedication. With him were Vice President Richard Nixon, Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Anderson, and General Lemuel C. Shepherd, the 20th Commandant of the Marine Corps. Nixon gave the dedication address.[^5] Ira Hayes also sat in front. He was one of three flag raisers depicted on the monument who were then alive: Hayes, Schultz and Keller.[^5] John Bradley and Rene Gagnon were seated there as well. Both were later found to have been wrongly identified as flag raisers: Bradley as of June 23, 2016, and Gagnon as of October 16, 2019.[^5] ## Second flag-raiser corrections On March 20, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the flag-raisers in Rosenthal's photograph to Washington, D.C. Pfc. Gagnon arrived on April 7. That day he told a Marine public information officer that the six were Sgt. Strank, Pfc. Sousley, Navy corpsman John Bradley, Pfc. Ira Hayes, Sgt. Henry Hansen and himself. He added that Strank, Hansen and Sousley had been killed on Iwo Jima.[^6] Bradley and Hayes reached Washington on April 19, and the same officer questioned them separately. Bradley accepted all of Gagnon's identifications, including his own. Hayes disputed only Hansen, saying that Cpl. Block was the man at the base of the flagstaff.[^6] The Marine lieutenant colonel told Hayes that the identities had been made public on April 8 and would not be changed. The officer later denied that Hayes had named Block to him.[^6] A Marine Corps investigation ran from December 1946 to January 1947. It found that Block, not Hansen, was at the base of the flagstaff.[^6] Schultz's own identification came decades later. On June 23, 2016, the Marine Corps announced that the figure long identified as Sousley was Schultz. It also found that Sousley had been misidentified as Bradley, and that Bradley does not appear in the photograph.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *Harold Schultz* (rev. 1381967858, retrieved 2026-10-26), lead section — dates of birth and death, role in the patrol and second flag-raising, the 2016 Marine Corps identification, and the photograph's publication. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Schultz [^2]: Wikipedia, *Harold Schultz* (rev. 1381967858, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Biography" section — parents, schooling, postal career and marriage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Schultz [^3]: Wikipedia, *Harold Schultz* (rev. 1381967858, retrieved 2026-10-26), "U.S. Marine Corps" section — enlistment, unit, training, wounding and discharge dates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Schultz [^4]: Wikipedia, *Harold Schultz* (rev. 1381967858, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Iwo Jima" subsection — landing, the 28th Marines' advance and the February 23 patrol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Schultz [^5]: Wikipedia, *Harold Schultz* (rev. 1381967858, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Marine Corps War Memorial" section — dedication, statue positions since 2016 and attendees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Schultz [^6]: Wikipedia, *Harold Schultz* (rev. 1381967858, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Second flag-raiser corrections" section — 1945 questioning of Gagnon, Bradley and Hayes, and the 1946–47 investigation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Schultz