Raymond E. Jacobs (January 24, 1926 – January 29, 2008) was an American and
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
sergeant who served in combat during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Jacobs was a member of the combat patrol that climbed up to the top of
Mount Suribachi
is a -high mountain on the southwest end of Iwo Jima in the northwest Pacific Ocean under the administration of Ogasawara Subprefecture, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan.
The mountain's name derives from its shape, resembling a ''suribachi'' or grindin ...
during the
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJ ...
and
raised the first U.S. Flag on February 23, 1945.
[ Afterwards, he was a news reporter and had served during the ]Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
as an instructor at Camp Pendleton
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and is one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the United States. It is on the Southern California coast in San Diego County and is bordered by Oc ...
, California.
Early life
Jacobs was born on January 24, 1926, in Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...
. His family moved to Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, California in 1933. He was a football star at Polytechnic High School in the Los Angeles area.
U.S. Marine Corps, World War II
Jacobs enlisted in the Marine Corps in May 1943. In September, after he completed recruit training in San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
, he volunteered for Marine Raider
The Marine Raiders are special operations forces originally established by the United States Marine Corps during World War II to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare. " Edson's" Raiders of 1st Marine Raider Battalion and " Carlson's" Ra ...
training at Camp Pendleton. After the Marine Raiders were disbanded in February 1944, he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment
The 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment (2nd Battalion, 28th Marines) is an infantry battalion of the United States Marine Corps. The battalion (inactive since the Vietnam War) which is part of the 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division, fough ...
, 5th Marine Division
The 5th Marine Division was a United States Marine Corps ground combat division which was activated on 11 November 1943 (officially activated on 21 January 1944) at Camp Pendleton, California during World War II. The 5th Division saw its first ...
at Camp Pendleton. He was assigned to F Company. In September, the division departed for Hilo, Hawaii
Hilo () is a census-designated place (CDP) and the largest settlement in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States, which encompasses the Island of Hawaii. The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 census. It is the fourth-largest settlement i ...
(Camp Tarawa
Camp Tarawa was a training camp located on Hawaiʻi Island constructed and used by the 2nd Marine Division during World War II. The grounds of the camp were situated between the volcanic peak of Mauna Kea and Kohala mountain. Marines were sen ...
) to continue training for follow on action in the Pacific Theatre. He was trained there to be a radioman in F Company. After training and preparing for the invasion of Iwo Jima, the 28th Marines
The 28th Marine Regiment (28th Marines) is an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps. The regiment (inactive since the Vietnam War) which is part of the 5th Marine Division, fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. Six ...
left Hawaii in December, embarking upon amphibious transports, and after a few days liberty in Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
, they set sail heading west on January 7, 1945. The regiment stopped at Eniwetok
Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...
on February 5, conducted a practice landing on Tinian
Tinian ( or ; old Japanese name: 天仁安島, ''Tenian-shima'') is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of th ...
on February 13, and arrived off the coast of Iwo Jima on February 16.
Battle of Iwo Jima
Jacobs took part in the Second Battalion, 28th Marines, amphibious assault landing on Green Beach at the southern part of Iwo Jima near Mount Suribachi on February 19, 1945. From 19 to 23 February, the 28th Marines fought to secure Mount Suribachi. On February 23 at 8 AM, First Lieutenant Harold Schrier, the E Company executive officer, led a 40-man combat patrol from Third Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines up Mount Suribachi to siege and occupy the crest. Accompanying Schrier was Jacobs, a radioman from F Company who was reassigned to him for the patrol. Schrier was to raise an American flag he was given to signal that the mountaintop was captured. Once on top of the volcano, a section of a Japanese water pipe was found that became the flagstaff for the flag. Schrier and two other Marines attached the flag to the pipe which was then carried to the highest spot on the crater
Crater may refer to:
Landforms
*Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet
*Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surfac ...
.
At approximately 10:20-10:35 a.m., Lt. Schrier, Platoon Sergeant Ernest Thomas, and Sergeant Henry Hansen, raised the flag (Thomas was ordered to report aboard the flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
USS ''Eldorado'' on February 25, and during an interview with a CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
radio broadcaster said that Schrier, and Sgt. Henry Hansen, and he, had actually raised the flag). Seeing the raising of the national colors
National colours are frequently part of a country's set of national symbols. Many states and nations have formally adopted a set of colours as their official "national colours" while others have ''de facto'' national colours that have become well ...
immediately caused a reaction of loud cheering from the Marines, sailors, and coast guardsmen on the beach below and from the men on the ships near the beach; the ships whistles and horns went off too. Hansen was killed in action on Iwo Jima on March 1, and Thomas on March 3. On March 10, 1945, Jacobs was wounded by enemy mortar fire and was evacuated off Iwo Jima. The actual raising of the first flag on Mount Suribachi had not been photographed.
In the early afternoon, a larger replacement flag was brought up Mount Suribachi by the Easy Company runner (messenger) which was then attached unto another Japanese steel pipe. This flag was raised by six Marines while the first flag was lowered. A photograph of the second flag raising by Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
photographer Joe Rosenthal
Joseph John Rosenthal (October 9, 1911 – August 20, 2006) was an American photographer who received the Pulitzer Prize for his iconic World War II photograph '' Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima'', taken during the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima.
H ...
appeared in the newspapers, became renowned world-wide, made the second flag-raisers and Rosenthal famous, and led to the creation of the huge Marine Corps War Memorial
The United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) is a national memorial located in Arlington County, Virginia. The memorial was dedicated in 1954 to all Marines who have given their lives in defense of the United States since 177 ...
(sometimes referred to as the Iwo Jima Memorial) in 1954, in Arlington, Virginia.
Post World War II
Jacobs was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 1946. He then went to work as a reporter
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
, news anchor
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
, news director, and editorial director for KTVU
KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside San Jose ...
in Oakland
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
, California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
for 34 years before retiring on July 1, 1992. In 1950, Jacobs was called up for Marine Corps service during the Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
. He served as a Marine instructor in California until he was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant in August 1951.
World War II photo claim
Jacobs and his family spent his later years trying to prove that he actually was the Marine radio operator who was photographed on top of Mount Suribachi beneath the first American flag
The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...
several times by Staff Sergeant Louis R. Lowery
Louis R. Lowery (July 24, 1916 – April 15, 1987) was a United States Marine Corps captain. He was the only Marine Corps combat photographer to cover six major campaigns during World War II. He is best known for taking the first photographs ...
(a combat photographer
War photography involves photographing armed conflict and its effects on people and places. Photographers who participate in this genre may find themselves placed in harm's way, and are sometimes killed trying to get their pictures out of the war ...
with ''Leatherneck'' magazine).[America's Greatest Generation: Marine Heroes: Raymond Jacobs]
Although Jacobs's face is not visible in Lowery's most widely circulated photograph of the first flag flown on Mount Suribachi, his claim that it is definitely him was based on other black and white photographs of him taken by Lowery and other combat photographers near the first flag with Lieutenant Schrier. The radioman in the most famous of Lowery's photographs was assumed for years to be a Marine in F Company named Louis Charlo, or Pfc. Gene Marshall, the E Company radio operator, or an unknown Marine. Charlo (KIA March 2, 1945), who was not a radioman, was identified as being on Mount Suribachi near the flag (F Company followed Schrier's E Company patrol up the mountain) after Schrier's patrol climbed up the mountain, captured the summit, and raised the flag. Marshall claimed he was on top of Mount Suribachi, but has not ever been identified as being there. Jacobs said he was ordered back down Mount Suribachi sometime after the flag raising.
Jacobs claimed that on February 23, 1945, he was assigned as the radioman for Lt. Schrier and his 40-man patrol from E Company who went up Mount Suribachi after a 4-man reconnaissance patrol (included Charlo) from Third Platoon, F Company (Jacobs's company) which had been sent up the mountain an hour earlier, came down.[ The other men involved in the patrol and first flag raising have all died. In 2008, just after Jacobs had died, Annette Amerman, a historian with the Marine Corps History Division, said "there are many that believe" Jacobs was the radioman. "However, there are no official Marine Corps records produced at the time that can prove or refute Mr. Jacobs' location."][ There has not been a Marine photo of Marshall to compare to Lowery's photos. There are however, several photo comparisons of Jacobs that do verify he is the radioman with Lt. Schrier on Mount Suribachi, and Los Angeles newspaper accounts (Associated Press Dispatch, beginning February 24, 1945) which support Jacobs's testimonies that he was personally interviewed on top of Mt. Suribachi after the first flag-raising.][ His claims are also supported by his letters home. In 2019, a Marine Corps investigation of the two flag raisings on Mount Suribachi confirmed that Jacobs was indeed Lt. Schrier's radio operator who was photographed several times on top of Mount Suribachi near the first flag after it was raised.]
Jacobs had disputed the official identifications in Lowery's picture and asserted that it should be: Pfc. James Robeson fc._Harold_Schultz.html" ;"title="Harold_Schultz.html" ;"title="fc. Harold Schultz">fc. Harold Schultz">Harold_Schultz.html" ;"title="fc. Harold Schultz">fc. Harold Schultz(in Lowery's second photo, in lower left corner) [behind Hansen], Pfc. Raymond Jacobs (carrying radio), 1st Lt. Harold Schrier (kneeling behind Jacobs) [left bottom side of Jacobs], Sgt. Henry Hansen (utility cap, holding flagpole), unknown Marine [Pvt. Phil Ward] (lower right hand securing flagpole), Platoon Sgt. Ernest Thomas (seated), PhM2c. John Bradley, USN (helmeted, above Thomas securing flagpole with both hands), Pfc. James Michels (holding M1 carbine
The M1 carbine (formally the United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine that was a standard firearm for the U.S. military during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The M1 carbine was produced ...
), and Cpl. Charles Lindberg
Charles W. Lindberg (June 26, 1920 – June 24, 2007) was a United States Marine Corps corporal who fought in three island campaigns during World War II. During the Battle of Iwo Jima, he was a member of the patrol that captured the top of Moun ...
(standing above Michels).[
Due to an agreement with the ]Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
and the Marine Corps over Rosenthal's photo of the second flag raising on Mount Suribachi the afternoon of February 23, Lowery's photos taken on Mount Suribachi were not released until 1947, when 16 of his pictures appeared in ''Leatherneck Magazine''.
Death
Jacobs died of natural causes at a hospital in Redding, California
Redding is the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California and the county seat of Shasta County. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, and south of California's northern border wi ...
, on January 29, 2008, at the age of 82. He is buried in Northern California Veterans Cemetery in Igo, California
Igo is an unincorporated community 9 miles west of Redding, CA. Its population is 103 as of the 2020 census. Its ZIP Code is 96047. Wired Telephone numbers follow the pattern 530-396-xxxx. It has a neighboring town of Ono, which is four miles w ...
.Grave of Raymond Jacobs
Find A Grave. Retrieved March 13, 2014
Military awards
Jacobs's military awards:
See also
* Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
*Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJ ...
*Marine Corps War Memorial
The United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) is a national memorial located in Arlington County, Virginia. The memorial was dedicated in 1954 to all Marines who have given their lives in defense of the United States since 177 ...
References
External links
Ex-Marine Seeks Place in Iwo Jima History
Los Angeles Times. 20 February 2005
One of the photographs taken after the first flag was raised on Iwo Jima
Veterans Memory Project. Library of Congress.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Raymond
1926 births
2008 deaths
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
Battle of Iwo Jima
United States Marine Corps non-commissioned officers
Military personnel from Bridgeport, Connecticut