SCHRIER, HAROLD G.

Harold G. Schrier, U.S. Marine veteran who played a major role in Memorial Day ceremonies at Fort Myers Memorial Gardens, has died [June 3, 1971] in Manatee Memorial Hospital in Bradenton.

Edward T. Kuss, senior vice commander, Veterans of Foreign Wars, District 13, who was in charge of the Iwo Jima Memorial dedication program at Memorial Gardens, said he received word Tuesday of Schrier’s death last week.

Schrier, a Marine lieutenant at the time, led the American assault on Mount Suribachi during the Iwo Jima battle. He and Rene Gagnon, one of two still-living Marines depicted in the epic Iwo Jima flag-raising statue, helped dedicate the Memorial Gardens replica by hoisting the American flag to the top of the statue.

Kuss said the flag raised at the 10-ton statue Memorial Day will be flown at half-mast at Memorial Gardens in honor of Schrier.

Schrier, who retired from the Marine Corps as a colonel in 1957, was 54 at the time of his death.