Raymond Jacobs

Raymond E. Jacobs (January 24, 1926 – January 29, 2008) was a United States Marine Corps sergeant who served in World War II and during the Korean War. Jacobs was a member of the combat patrol that climbed up to the top of Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima and raised the first American flag on February 23, 1945. He later was a news reporter.

Jacobs was born in 1926 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was a football star at Polytechnic High School in the Los Angeles area.

Jacobs enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1943 and trained during World War II as a Marine Raider. He was sent overseas as a Marine radio operator with F Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division in the Pacific Theatre.

Jacobs participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima which began on February 19, 1945. 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 assigned 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.

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