Retired Marine colonel whose troops planted US flag on Iwo Jima dies at 102
• Associated Press • August 6, 2021
SAN DIEGO — Dave Severance, the Marine company commander whose troops planted the American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II, a moment captured in one of the most iconic war photographs in history, has died. He was 102.
Severance died Monday at his home in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Severance's company came ashore in the 10th wave of what eventually would be about 70,000 Marines invading the island, about 660 miles south of Tokyo. They were met by some 20,000 Japanese.
On Feb. 23, 1945, the fifth day of fighting, about 40 members of Severance's company were sent up Mount Suribachi with orders to plant the flag. When Navy Secretary James Forrestal arrived on the island, he asked for it to be kept as a memento.
https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2021-08-06/iwo-jima-flag-marine-col-dave-severance-2473974.html
