Iwo Jima Flag Raiser Lindberg Dies at 86

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Iwo Jima Flag Raiser Lindberg Dies at 86
By CHRIS WILLIAMS
Associated Press Writer

June 25, 2007, 11:50 AM EDT

RICHFIELD, Minn. -- Charles W. Lindberg, one of the U.S. Marines
who raised the first American flag over Iwo Jima during World War II,
has died. He was 86.

Lindberg died Sunday at Fairview Southdale hospital in the Minneapolis
suburb of Edina, said John Pose, director of the Morris Nilsen Funeral
Home in Richfield, which is handling Lindberg's funeral.

Lindberg spent decades explaining that it was his patrol, not the one
captured in the famous Associated Press photograph by Joe Rosenthal,
that raised the first flag as U.S. forces fought to take the Japanese
island.

In the late morning of Feb. 23, 1945, Lindberg fired his flame-thrower
into enemy pillboxes at the base of Mount Suribachi and then joined
five other Marines fighting their way to the top. He was awarded the
Silver Star for bravery.

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