[2] In September of that year, the division sent to Hawaii to begin training for combat in the Pacific theater.

The 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines landed at Beach Green 1 just northeast of the imposing Mount Suribachi.

First Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier, E Company's executive officer, volunteered to take a 40-man patrol up Suribachi and raise the battalion's American flag on the top if he could to signal the mountaintop was captured.

Staff Sergeant Louis R. Lowery, a Leatherneck Magazine photographer, accompanied the patrol.

After the fighting on Iwo Jima, the battalion returned to Camp Tarawa, Hawaii to rest and refit and begin training for the planned invasion of Japan.

The Japanese surrender saw the battalion take part in occupation duty near the city of Nagasaki.