Remembering Greeley the Marine Who Carried the First Iwo Jima Flag
SGT REECE LODDER, USMC Barbara Kenney displays a photo of her late father, 1stLt George Greeley Wells, at her home in Bellevue, Wash., Oct. 25, 2014. Wells provided Marines with the first flag that was raised on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Remembering Greeley The Marine Who Carried the First Iwo Jima Flag By Sgt Reece Lodder, USMC 54inchby28inch flag flew there. The Retired Colonel Dave E. Severance, who smaller flag was drawn from the map case as a captain served alongside Greeley on ew events in Marine Corps history of 25yearold First Lieutenant George Iwo Jima as 2/28’s “Easy” Company com are as storied as the iconic flag raising Greeley Wells, the Lake Forest, Ill.born mander, recalled receiving the first brief F on Mount Suribachi during World ad jutant of 2d Battalion, 28th Marine Reg ing on the operation and being “amazed War II’s Battle of Iwo Jima. The quiet iment, Fifth Marine Division. that we’d been given the mission of climb event, starkly contrasting the bloody battle The sharp, amiable officer, known by ing the volcano.” that claimed the lives of a third of the war’s his family and friends as “Greeley,” joined Now 95 and settled in La Jolla, Calif., fallen Marines, later marked a deafening 2d Bn, 28th Marines shortly before the Severance still clearly recalls the “young, Allied victory and powerfully symbolized battalion began training for the Pacific very enthusiastic lieutenant’s” portion of the resolve of a nation at war.
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