Last survivor of Iwo Jima flag raising dies

Last survivor of Iwo Jima flag raising dies in Edina, MN

Excerpt:

Lindberg spent decades explaining that it was his patrol, not the one captured in the famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal, that raised the first flag over the 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.

"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."

The moment was captured by Sgt. Lou Lowery, a photographer from the Corps' Leatherneck magazine. It was the first time a foreign flag flew on Japanese soil, according to the book "Flags of Our Fathers," by James Bradley with Ron Powers. Bradley's father, Navy Corpsman John Bradley, was one of the men in the famous photo of the second flag-raising.

Three of the men in the first raising never saw their photos. They were among the 5,931 Marines killed on the island.

Comments:

1. There were 2 flag raisings on Iwo. The 2nd is the more famous.
   
2. Essential reading: Flags of Our Fathers. Kathee's family is connected because John Bradley operated a funeral parlor in Antigo Wisconsin and both of her parents funerals were through that establishment. John Bradley's son James, the author, is a contemporary of Kathee's and known by Kathee's family.
   
3. Image of first flag raising from grunt.com
   

I'm privileged to know many Marines, and they are fine men!