| Original caption: “First flag on Guam flies from boat hook mast. Two United States Marine officers plant the American flag on Guam eight minutes after Marines and Army assault troops landed on the Central Pacific island.” United States Marine Captain Milton F. Thompson (June 26, 1907 – July 9, 1964) and Paul S. O’Neal (August 23, 1917 – October 18, 1995), 3rd Tractor Battalion, disembarked under direct fire from Japanese gun emplacements and raised the American flag on a boat hook from their LVT-4 Amtrac. This image was widely circulated in the summer of 1944, but did not have the galvanizing impact of Joe Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima flag raising photo in February 1945 8 months later. “Eight minutes after United States Marines hit the beach in the invasion of Guam, the American flag was flying over the island which the Japanese seized early in the war-planted there under enemy fire by Captain Milton F. Thompson (right), member of the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch news staff on leave, and Captain Paul S. O’Neal, Brighton, Massachusetts. The family of Captain Thompson, who has seen varied action in the Pacific theater, now resides in Upper Montclair, New Jersey.” — Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, July 31, 1944 “In the shadow of Mount Alifan [peak located in Agat on the southwest of the island] the American flag was raised over the rich red and black soil of Guam at 1600 Hours this afternoon after two and a half years of Japanese occupation. As the Stars and Stripes were unfurled atop a white metal pole in the sultry air, artillery fire crashed from a meadow near by and shells whistled overhead into the Japanese lines near Sumay, two miles away, where marines on a muddy plateau were poised for a drive on the Orote Peninsula airfield.” — Robert Trumbull, The New York Times, July 31, 1944 “Amid a thunderous salute of bombs, shells, grenades and rockets, Captain Paul S. O’Neal of Boston and Captain Milton F. Thompson of Upper Montclair, New Jersey, jumped to the beach as their tractor, with the Stars and Stripes fluttering from a boathook, lurched in from the sea. Spearing the makeshift staff into the sand, they promptly dived to the ground.” — Sergeant R. J. Fitzpatrick, Marine Corps Combat Correspondent, The Boston Globe, August 18, 1944 O’Neal, a 1941 graduate of Boston College, was an engineer for Union Carbide for 40 years until retiring in 1979. Thompson returned to reporting after the war, working for the San Diego Evening Tribune and the Baltimore News-American. He died of a heart attack at age 54. Photo by Corporal John J. Batts (November 28, 1919 – April 13, 1992), Headquarters and Service Battery, 12th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. Prior to the Iwo Jima operation, Batts, a Methodist, wondered about the Episcopal priest conducting the Sunday service for 3rd Marine Division on Guam in early February 1945. He asked Marine Captain Thayer Soule (October 9, 1917 – January 15, 2004) “What’s the difference between an Episcopalian and a Methodist? This chaplain wears a collar like a padre, but he isn’t Catholic. I used to go to a Methodist church when I was a kid. This guy seems about the same as the minister we had then. I can’t see much difference.” Soule said, “Well, there isn’t much, really, when you come right down to it.” “I kind of like going to church here,” Batts continued. “A lot of fellows do.” He looked up the street for a full minute. “You need something like this to get you going to church again, I guess. You never know what’s going to happen, do you, Captain?” | |
| Image Filename | wwii1696.jpg |
| Image Size | 426.13 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2924 x 2292 |
| Photographer | John J. Batts |
| Photographer Title | United States Marine Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | July 21, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | |
| State or Province | Guam |
| Country | Marianas |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-127-N-88073 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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