Greeley Wells

George Greeley Wells was born on June 21, 1920, in Chicago, Illinois, to Thomas E. Wells Jr., son of Thomas E. Wells, and Ruth Greeley.{{Cite web |date=February 6, 1940 |title=Wells |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-wells/161512942/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune}} He was raised in Lake Forest, Illinois, and graduated with a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1943.{{Cite news |last=Lodder|first=Reece|date=November 20, 2014|title=Remembering Greeley: The Marine who carried his flag to Iwo Jima |url=https://www.dvidshub.net/news/148376/remembering-greeley-marine-who-carried-his-flag-iwo-jima |newspaper=DVIDS |access-date=April 15, 2025 }}

During World War II, Wells served in the United States Marine Corps and fought the Empire of Japan in the Pacific theater. File:First Iwo Jima Flag Raising.jpg, USMC
Left to right: 1st Lt. Harold Schrier{{cite news | url=http://www.richmond-dailynews.com/2012/01/camden-fleming-man-an-unsung-hero-at-Iwo-Jima | title=Camden-Fleming man an unsung hero at Iwo Jima | url-status=dead | author=David Knopf | work=Richmond News | date=January 2, 2012 | access-date=March 12, 2014 | archive-date=April 12, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412081737/http://www.richmond-dailynews.com/2012/01/camden-fleming-man-an-unsung-hero-at-iwo-jima }} (kneeling behind radioman's legs), Pfc. Raymond Jacobs (radioman reassigned from F Company), Sgt. Henry "Hank" Hansen wearing cap, holding flagstaff with left hand), Platoon Sgt. Ernest "Boots" Thomas (seated), Pvt. Phil Ward (holding lower flagstaff with his right hand), PhM2c. John Bradley, USN (holding flagstaff with both hands, his right hand above Ward's right hand and his left hand below.), Pfc. James Michels (holding M1 Carbine), and Cpl. Charles W. Lindberg (standing above Michels).]] Wells began basic training at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton before being sent to Camp Tarawa, Hawaii for further training.{{sfn|Rottman|2002|pp=178}} On February 19, 1945, Wells landed on the southeast side of Iwo Jima with the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, on "Green Beach 1", which was the closest landing beach to Mount Suribachi on the southern end of the island. He stormed the beaches of Iwo Jima under "intense mortar, sniper, and machine gun fire" and was shot in the arm.{{Cite web |last=Corcoran |first=Anne |date=December 5, 1991 |title=A Prank, Not a Plot |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-star-ledger-a-prank-not-a-plot/161513068/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=The Star-Ledger}}{{Cite web |title=Greeley Wells: Always Carry a Flag |url=https://exhibits.lflbhistory.org/stories/66 |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=lflbhistory.org}} He spent his first night on the island in a fox hole with Pfc. Rene Gagnon. Wells took part in the raising of the first and second U.S. flags on Iwo Jima.{{Cite web |last=Lodder |first=Reece |title=Remembering Greeley: The Marine who carried his flag to Iwo Jima |url=https://www.marines.mil/News/News-Display/Article/554755/remembering-greeley-the-marine-who-carried-his-flag-to-iwo-jima/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=marines.mil}}{{Cite web |last=Smollar |first=David |date=February 22, 1985 |title=Iwo Jima |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-iwo-jima/161509792/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}{{Cite web |last=Asta |first=P.J. |date=February 19, 2015 |title=Celebrating an inspirational image |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/omaha-world-herald-celebrating-an-inspir/161512901/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=Omaha World-Herald}}

{{Blockquote |The Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, had decided the previous night that he wanted to go ashore and witness the final stage of the fight for the mountain. Now, under a stern commitment to take orders from General Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith, the secretary was churning ashore in the company of the blunt, earthy general. Their boat touched the beach just after the flag went up, and the mood among the high command turned jubilant. Gazing upward, at the red, white, and blue speck, Forrestal remarked to Smith: "Holland, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years".{{sfn|Warren|2007|p= [https://archive.org/details/americanspartans00jame/page/70 70]}}{{sfn|Clancy|1996|p=670}}}}

{{Blockquote |Forrestal was so taken with fervor of the moment that he decided he wanted the Second Battalion's flag flying on Mt. Suribachi as a souvenir. The news of this wish did not sit well with 2nd Battalion Commander Chandler Johnson, whose temperament was every bit as fiery as Howlin Mad's. "To hell with that!" the colonel spat when the message reached him. The flag belonged to the battalion, as far as Johnson was concerned. He decided to secure it as soon as possible, and dispatched his assistant operations officer, Lieutenant Ted Tuttle, to the beach to obtain a replacement flag. As an afterthought, Johnson called after Tuttle: "And make it a bigger one."{{sfn|Bradley|2006|p=207}}|author=James Bradley|title=Flags of Our Fathers}}

Then-First Lieutenant Wells, was adjutant of 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division and officially in charge of both American flags flown on Mount Suribachi. He stated in The New York Times in 1991 that Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson ordered Wells to get the second flag, and that Wells sent Rene Gagnon, his battalion runner, to the ships on shore for the flag. Wells said that Gagnon returned with a flag and gave it to him, and that Gagnon took this flag up Mt. Suribachi with a message for Harold G. Schrier to raise it and send the other flag down with Gagnon. Wells stated that he received the first flag back from Gagnon and secured it at the Marine headquarters command post. Wells also stated that he had handed the first flag to Lieutenant Schrier to take up Mount Suribachi.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/17/opinion/l-the-man-who-carried-the-flag-at-iwo-jima-631591.html | title=The Man Who Carried the Flag at Iwo Jima | author=G. Greeley Wells | work=The New York Times | date=October 17, 1991 | page=A26}}{{cite web |last = Lucas |first = Dean |date = July 9, 2007 |title = Famous Pictures Magazine – Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima |publisher = Famous Pictures Magazine |url = http://www.famouspictures.org/raising-the-flag-on-iwo-jima/ |access-date = May 23, 2013}} Six days after the raising of the flag, Wells met by chance his first cousin, Lt. Preston A. Wells Jr., at a command post on the mountain. File:Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, larger - edit1.jpg, by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press]]

In November 1957, Wells was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps with the rank of Captain.

After leaving the military, Wells moved his family to Harding Township, New Jersey, and became a partner at GW Bromley & Co., mapping cities for local governments. He later sold the business to the Sanborn Map Company and became president of the company.

An active member in the local Republican Party, Wells served on the township committee and was elected mayor of Harding Township in 1963; serving during the civil rights movement and the JFK assassination.{{Cite web |date=May 8, 1963 |title=Mayor Greeley Wells Cuts Ribbon at Minuteman Opening |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-chatham-press-mayor-greeley-wells-cu/161513362/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=The Chatham Press}}{{Cite web |date=November 16, 1963 |title=Predict Another Jetport Effort In Morris County |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-predict-another-jetport-effort/161513527/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=The News}}{{Cite web |date=February 19, 1995 |title=Greeley Wells |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-record-greeley-wells/161513573/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=Daily Record}} He served as chairman of Barry Goldwater's unsuccessful Morris County, New Jersey campaign in 1964.{{Cite web |last=Lazarus |first=Shirley |date=February 18, 1975 |title=Iwo Jima Veteran Hoping For Economic Heroism |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-record-iwo-jima-veteran-hoping-for/161513270/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=Daily Record}}{{Cite web |date=July 25, 1964 |title=Greeley Wells to Handle Barry Campaign in Morris |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-greeley-wells-to-handle/161513415/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=Herald News}} That same year, Wells ran for freeholder of Morris County and was defeated by incumbent Thomas Koclas by a slim 239-vote margin.{{Cite web |date=April 23, 1964 |title=Wells Asks New Count In Morris |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-wells-asks-new-count-in/161513442/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=Herald News}}{{Cite web |date=April 22, 1964 |title=Wells Leads Incumbents In Parsippany |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-wells-leads-incumbents-i/161513216/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=Herald News}} He would go on to serve as a local party leader and Harding Township police commissioner.{{Cite web |date=June 28, 1965 |title=Wells to Head GOP Campaign |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-wells-to-head-gop-campai/161513320/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=Herald News}}

Along with fellow Battle of Iwo Jima veteran and retired Major general Fred E. Haynes Jr., Greeley co-chaired a reunion for the battle's survivors every five years, arranging White House visits with U.S. presidents and dinners with the commandant of the Marine Corps.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Wells was interviewed for James Bradley’s best-selling book Flags of Our Fathers and for Oliver North's award-winning series War Stories with Oliver North. North described Wells as "one of the finest people I’ve ever met" and said "the classical definition of a hero is not the one who catches the touchdown in the end zone; it’s the person who puts himself at risk for the benefit of others — that was Greeley, humble and selfless."

Wells was a cousin of Preston A. Wells Jr., a businessman and rancher who also served as a Marine Corps officer at the Battle of Iwo Jima.{{Cite web |date=April 26, 1916 |title=In The Boxes At The "Follies" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-in-the-boxes-at-the-fol/161513134/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune}}

In 1941, Wells married Barbara "Bobsy" Blossom. They had four children together. Bobsy and one of their children had polio.

In the early 2000s, Wells and his wife moved to Bellevue, Washington. In 2009, Bobsy died from polio-related symptoms. On September 22, 2014, Wells died in his home in Bellevue, at the age of 94.{{Cite web |title=Greeley Wells Obituary |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/delconewsnetwork/name/greeley-wells-obituary?id=22805240 |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=Legacy.com}}

Wells's decorations included:{{Cite web |last=Lodder |first=Reece |title=Remembering Greeley |url=https://www.mca-marines.org/wp-content/uploads/iwo-article-8.pdf |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=Marine Corps Association}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book

| last = Bradley

| first = James

| author-link = James Bradley (American author)

| title = Flags of Our Fathers

| year = 2006

| orig-year=2000

| publisher = Bantam

| location = New York

| isbn = 978-0-553-38415-4

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Clancy

| first = Tom

| date = 1996

| author-link = Tom Clancy

| title = Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wQG95Vd5iYYC&pg=PT670

| publisher = Penguin Group US

| isbn = 978-1-4295-2009-6

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Warren

| first = James A.

| date = 2007

| title = American Spartans: The U.S. Marines: A Combat History from Iwo Jima to Iraq

| url = https://archive.org/details/americanspartans00jame

| url-access = registration

| publisher = Simon and Schuster

| location = New York

| isbn = 978-1-4165-3297-2

}}

• {{ cite book

| last = Rottman

| first = Gordon L.

| title = U.S. Marine Corps World War II Order of Battle – Ground and Air Units in the Pacific War

| publisher = Greenwood Press

| year = 2002

| location = Westport, Connecticut

| url =

| doi =

| isbn = 0-313-31906-5

}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Greeley}}

Category:1920 births

Category:2014 deaths

Category:Mayors of places in New Jersey

Category:Businesspeople from Chicago

Category:Military personnel from Chicago

Category:People from Harding Township, New Jersey

Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II

Category:20th-century American military personnel

Category:20th-century New Jersey politicians

Category:Military personnel from Illinois

Greeley

Category:20th-century American businesspeople

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