Henry Oliver Hansen

Henry Oliver Hansen (December 14, 1919 – March 1, 1945) was a United States Marine Corps sergeant who was killed in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. He was a member of the patrol that captured Mount Suribachi, where he helped raise the first U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. He was killed six days later.

The first flag flown over the southern end of Iwo Jima was regarded to be too small to be seen by the thousands of Marines fighting on the other side of the mountain where the Japanese airfields and most of their troops were located, so it was replaced the same day with a larger flag. Although there were photographs taken of the first flag flying on Mount Suribachi and some which include Hansen, there is no photograph of Marines raising the first flag. Hansen also was photographed near the second flag.

The second flag-raising by six Marines was photographed by Associated Press combat photographer Joe Rosenthal and became famous after copies of his photograph appeared in the newspapers two days later. He was incorrectly identified in Rosenthal's flag-raising photograph as the Marine at the base of the flagstaff until the Marine Corps announced in January 1947 after an investigation which was initiated by one of the flag-raisers, that Corporal Harlon Block was that Marine. Hansen is one of three men who were originally identified incorrectly as flag-raisers in the photograph (the others being John Bradley and Rene Gagnon).

The Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, is modeled after the historic photograph of six Marines raising the second flag on Iwo Jima.

Hansen was born to Henry T. Hansen (1891-1966) and Madeline T. Dwyer (1895-1970) in Somerville, Massachusetts, with one sister and three brothers. He graduated from Somerville High School in 1938 and joined the Marine Corps.^{[citation needed]}

Hansen volunteered for the Paramarines, which were formed in 1942, and became a Marine parachutist. He fought in the Bougainville Campaign in 1943. In February 1944, the Paramarines were disbanded and he was transferred to Third Platoon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, California.

Hansen landed with the 5th marine Division on Iwo Jima, on February 19, 1945. He landed with his rifle company and battalion at the southern end of Iwo Jima where Mount Suribachi is located.^{[citation needed]}

On February 23, 1945, Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, ordered a platoon-size patrol to climb up 556-foot Mount Suribachi. Captain Dave Severance, E Company's commander, assembled the remainder of his Third Platoon and other members of the battalion headquarters including two Navy corpsmen and stretcher bearers. First Lieutenant Harold Schrier, E Company's executive officer, was handed the Second Battalion's American flag from Lt. Colonel Johnson (or the battalion adjutant); the flag measured 28 by 54 inches (137 by 71 cm) and had been taken from the attack transport USS Missoula (APA-211) on the way to Iwo Jima by First Lieutenant George G. Wells the Second Battalion's adjutant in charge of the battalion's flags. Lt. Schrier was to it take a patrol with the flag up the mountain and raise the flag if possible at the summit to signal that Mount Suribachi was captured and the top secure. At 8:30 a.m., Lt. Schrier started climbing with the patrol up the mountain. Less than an hour later, the patrol, after receiving occasional Japanese sniper fire, reached the rim of the volcano. After a brief firefight there, Lt. Schrier and his men captured the summit.