Charles W. Lindberg passed away yesterday. He was the last survivor of the first team of Marines to raise the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima.
The flag raising was photographed by Sgt. Lou Lowery, however it is the second flag raising, photographed by Abe Rosenthal of the second flag team that people think of when this historic flag raising took place during the heat of battle.
“Two of our men found this big, long pipe there,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2003. “We tied the flag to it, took it to the highest spot we could find and we raised it.
“Down below, the troops started to cheer, the ship’s whistles went off, it was just something that you would never forget,” he said. “It didn’t last too long, because the enemy started coming out of the caves.”
Lindberg was wounded during the Battle for Iwo Jima and received both the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.
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