Pfc. Renee Arthur Gagnon - Manchester, NH
Posted by: 
silverquill
N 42° 59.538 W 071° 27.615
19T E 299439 N 4762896
Renee Arthur Gagnon was one of the marines immortalized in the famous photograph of the raising of the U.S. Flag on Iwo Jima in World War Two. He was born and died in Manchester, New Hampshire, and this monument is in Victory Park as a memorial.
Waymark Code: WM6CF8
Location: New Hampshire, United States
Date Posted: 05/13/2009
Views: 5
IN HONOR OF RENE GAGNON AND ALL THOSE FROM MANCHESTER
WHO ANSWERED THEIR COUNTRY'S CALL
Mt. Suricachi Iwo Jima
Februrary 23, 1945
Pfc Rene A. Gagnon
2nd Bn 28th Reg 5th Marine Div
"Don't glorify war . . . there is no glory in it. . . "
Rene Gagnon
"On Iwo Jima uncommon valor was a common virtue."
Adm. Chester Nimitz
Rene Arthur Gagnon (March 7, 1925 – October 12, 1979) was one of the U.S. Marines immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's famous World War II photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.
After training at Camp Pendleton and in Hawaii, Gagnon landed with his unit on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. Four days later - though with much fighting still ahead - Gagnon participated in what was most likely the most celebrated flag raising in U.S. history.
After the event, Gagnon recalled:
"On the morning of February 23 when the Colonel ordered these four men to take up the flag, they started going up and the communications were faulty between the top and the bottom of the mountain and they ordered me to take up the radio battery. When I got up there the four-man patrol with the flag had just got up there and they were about ready to put it up and when I got up I delivered the battery and then I went over to them and I was watching them put up the flag and the very heavy Japanese pipe…it weighed quite a lot…so they said lend a hand…so I just got into it. [...]"
From the Wikipedia
Rene Gagnon