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René Arthur Gagnon (March 7, 1925 – October 12, 1979) was a United States Marine Corps corporal who participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. Gagnon was generally known as being one of the Marines who raised the second U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945, and one of the United States Marines immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's famous World War II photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.

Early life[]

Gagnon was born in Manchester, New Hampshire in 1925, the only child of French Canadian immigrants from Disraeli, Quebec, and grew up without a father because his parents separated when he was an infant, though they never divorced. When he was old enough, René worked alongside his mother at a local shoe factory and also worked as a bicycle messenger boy for the local Western Union until he was drafted in 1943 and elected to join the US Marine Corps.

World War II[]

On May 6, 1943, Gagnon was inducted into the Marine Corps Reserve and sent to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina. While at Parris Island, Gagnon, promoted to Private First Class on July 16 of that year and was transferred to the Marine Guard Company at Charleston Navy Yard in South Carolina. He remained there for eight months and then joined the Military Police Company of the US 5th Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, California. On April 8, 1944, he was transferred to Company E, 2nd Battalion, US 28th Marine Regiment. Then in September, the 5th Marines left Camp Pendleton for further training at Camp Tarawa, Hawaii, for the assault on black sand island of Iwo Jima code named Operation Detachment, by three Marine divisions of the V Amphibious Corps.

The Attack on Iwo[]

On February 19, 1945, Gagnon landed with the 28th Marines on "Green Beach 1" on the southeast side closest to Mount Suribachi on the southern end of Iwo Jima. Four days later the platoon under command of Sergeant Hank Hansen reaches the top of Mount Suribachi and hoists the United States flag to cheers from the beaches and the ships. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, who witnesses the flag raising as he lands on the beach, requests the flag for himself. Colonel Chandler Johnson decides his 2nd Battalion deserves the flag more. Rene is sent up with Second Platoon to replace the first flag with a second one for Forrestal to take. Sergeant Mike Strank, Private First Class Harold H. Schultz, Pfc. Ira Hayes, Gagnon who was a Marine runner, and two other Marines Corporal Harlon Block and Private First Class Franklin Sousley participated in what was most likely the most celebrated flag raising in U.S. history by Joe Rosenthal as they raise the second flag.

Returning Home[]

When the 28th Marines left Iwo Jima for Hawaii, Gagnon, aboard the transport to a AP-170 named the USS Winged Arrow with Ira Hayes, was the first to be identified as one of the six-flag raisers in the photo and was ordered to Washington, D.C., arriving on April 7. Together with the other two identified survivors of the second flag raising, Navy Pharmacist's Mate John Bradley (One of the first flag raisers who was misidentified) and Hayes, he was assigned to temporary duty with the Finance Division, U.S. Treasury Department, for appearances and participation in connection with the Seventh War Loan drive (bond selling tour) in May and June 1945. The tour was through several major U.S cities raising billions of desperately needed dollars and moral at home to help win the war. The three flag-raisers had the second American flag with them during the bond tour. As the three are sent around the country to raise money and make speeches however Hayes was suffering from survivors guilt, faces discrimination as a Native American, and descends into alcoholism. After the three men did the ceremony for the veterans, Hayes throws up in front of General Alexander Vandegrift, commandant of the Marine Corps, he is sent back to his unit and the bond drive continues without him.

Back to Action[]

In July 1945, he was ordered to San Diego for further transfer overseas. Gagnon married Pauline Georgette Harnois, of Hooksett, New Hampshire, in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 7, 1945. By September, he was on his way overseas again, this time with the 80th Replacement Draft. On November 7, 1945, he arrived at Tsingtao, China, where he joined Company E, 2nd Battalion, 29th Marines, US 6th Marine Division. He later served with the 3rd Battalion of the same regiment. On duty with American occupation forces in China for nearly five months, he was promoted to Corporal and was honorably discharged at Camp Pendleton, California, on April 27, 1946. In 1954, the USMC War Memorial is dedicated and the three flag raisers see each other one last time before Ira Hayes died a year later.

Later life[]

He appeared in two films about the battle of Iwo Jima: To the Shores of Iwo Jima and Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), the latter with fellow surviving flag raisers Bradley and Hayes. He was also part of a Rose Bowl half-time show. However, in the end, it amounted to almost nothing, and left him bitter and an alcoholic. He worked at menial jobs, but was fired from most of them, the last one on Memorial Day, 1978. Rene attempts a business career but finds that the opportunities and offers he received during the bond drive are rescinded. After failing to find work as a police officer, he spends the rest of his life as a janitor.

Death[]

Gagnon died on October 12, 1979, in Manchester, New Hampshire at age 54 of a heart attack. He was buried at Mount Calvary Mausoleum. At the request of his widow, his remains were at Arlington National Cemetery on July 7, 1981.

Gallery[]

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