Charles Lindberg (1920-2007)
Raised 1st Flag Over Iwo Jima: WWII veteran spent decades explaining his patrol was there hours before Marines in famous photo.
Charles Lindberg died June 24, 2007 at his home in Minnesota.
In the late morning of February 23, 1945, Mr. Lindberg fired his flamethrower into a Japanese pillbox at the base of Mt. Suribachi, then joined five other Marines fighting their way to the summit.
"Two of our men found this big, long pipe there. We tied the flag to it, took it to the highest spot we could find and raised it.
"Down below, the troops started to cheer, the ships' whistles went off, it was just something that you would never forget. It didn't last too long, because the enemy started coming out of the caves," he told AP in 2003.
A picture of the moment was taken by Marine photographer Sgt. Lou Lowery. Three of the men who raised it never lived long enough to see their picture as they were among the 6,800 Americans who died in the battle.
Mr. Lindberg said his commander ordered the first flag replaced lest it became a souvenir. The second, larger flag was raised four hours later. This is the famous raising photo taken by Joe Rosenthal. Lindberg was wounded in the arm on March 1 and evacuated.
Discharged in 1946, he returned to his home in North Dakota and later moved to Richland in 1951. No one believed his story and he was even called a liar. He spent his final years trying to set the record straight. In 1995, the Minnesota legislature passed a resolution honoring Lindberg.
A Man Who Should Definitely Be Honored.
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