'Last Flagraiser' Dies At 86 (Iwo Jima)

WCCO.com ^ | 6/25/07 | WCCO.com

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Charles "Chuck" Lindberg, the last surviving flagraiser at Iwo Jima, passed away Sunday morning at Fairview Southdale Hospital.

Lindberg helped raise the first American flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima. His accomplishment was later overshadowed when a replacement flag was raised a few hours later.

He was honored in February 2006 at a military ceremony marking the anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima. He also recently attended a groundbreaking ceremony on Memorial Day at the site of a new veterans memorial in Richfield, Minn.

Lindberg's service and legacy as the last living flagraiser was the subject of an award-winning WCCO-TV documentary in 2005.

The funeral will be held later this week at Fort Snelling Chapel.

Lindberg was 86 years old.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Rest In Peace, Sir.

[ustanker]

I hope some one in Congress mentions this today.....Doubt it.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Maybe Norm Coleman, certainly NOT Keith Ellison.....

[SWEETSUNNYSOUTH]

Truly a great Marine to endure the fighting on Iwo to be able to raise the flag. He should be recognized today in congress but I am sure they have more “pressing issues” like amnesty for Illegals or some other crap.

[TLI]

This country will soon need a whole new generation of such men, in addition to the current generation that is handling the M.E. for us now.

[ustanker]

Just what I was Thinking.....Disgusting what they waste their time on.

[Silly]

I didn’t realize he raised the flag. Bless his heart. What a shame that he had to carry around the burden of his kidnapped son all these years. Now he’s found peace.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Ping...

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Different Lindberg......

[oh8eleven]

Raising the Flag Over Iwo Jima, 1945


"As Cpl Lindberg would later remark, "Suribachi was easy to take; it was getting there that was so hard!" Of the 40-man patrol, thirty-six were killed or wounded in later fighting on Iwo Jima including Lindberg himself who would be shot through the stomach and arm a week later on 1 March, 1945. For his heroism Lindberg would receive the Purple Heart and Silver Star Medal with the citation reading in part:

"Repeatedly exposing himself to hostile grenades and machine-gun fire in order that he might reach and neutralize enemy pill-boxes at the base of Mount Suribachi, Corporal Lindberg courageously approached within ten or fifteen yards of the emplacements before discharging his weapon, thereby assuring the annihilation of the enemy and the successful completion of this platoon's mission. While engaged in an attack on hostile cave positions on March 1, he fearlessly exposed himself to accurate enemy fire and was subsequently wounded and evacuated."

Semper Fi Cpl Lindberg - we'll never forget you or those like you who saved the world from tyranny.

[jazusamo]

Charles "Chuck" Lindberg, one of America's finest.

Rest In Peace.

Thanks for the ping, ButThreeLeftsDo.

[stevie_d_64]

It would be worthy of a few phonecalls today in any event...

[reagan_fanatic]

Another of the Greatest Generation has left us.

RIP, soldier.

[azhenfud]

Just a trivia question: From what ship did the first flag of Iwo come? Name & type?

[SWEETSUNNYSOUTH]

I will notify John Warner, Jim Webb and Bob Goodlatte. My uncle was there (Iwo Jima). He was my inspiration for joining the Marines.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

More........http://www.startribune.com/466/story/1266697.html

[oh8eleven]

More photos of Charles W. Lindberg.

[stevie_d_64]

Hopefully a quick but thoughtful statement this week would be appropriate...

I’m sure my critters John Cornyn, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and democrat liberal Nick Lampson are tired of me calling them about all this immigration crap...

Hopefully they’ll knock heads together and come up with something good...

[Silly]

Never mind.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Charles W. Lindberg, photographed in his Richfield, Minn home on May 25, 2004, holds the Silver Star he won for bravery during the battle for Iwo Jima in World War II. Lindberg, who died Sunday June 24, 2007, was the last survivor of the six U.S. Marines who raised the first American flag over Iwo Jima. A second planting of the U.S. flag was immortalized in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by Joe Rosenthal that became one of the signature photographs of the war.