thedrifter
10-25-06, 06:56 AM
Last update: October 24, 2006 – 10:09 PM
The last of the flag-raisers
Richfield plans to honor one of its own -- the last of the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi.
Donna Halvorsen, Star Tribune
Richfield plans to erect a monument to one of its own: Charles Lindberg, the only living veteran of the World War II flag-raisings on Iwo Jima.
It'll be the fourth Minnesota memorial to Lindberg, and it gives him another chance to explain that the Marines in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo weren't the ones who first planted a U.S. flag on Japanese soil during the ferocious 1945 battle in which more than 6,800 Marines died.
Lindberg, 86, isn't one to call attention to himself, but he does want to set the record straight: that he and five other Marines planted the flag atop Mount Suribachi and that they were photographed by Marine photographer Lou Lowery.
"Our job was to take the mountain," and the Fifth Marine Division did just that, Lindberg said. "I'm not a hero. Everybody did as much as I did."
A bigger flag was raised four hours later. Its raising produced the famous photo by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press.
"Kind of a bad trick to pull," Lindberg said Tuesday at the Richfield home where he has lived with his wife, Vi, for 54 years. Lowery "was kind of sore about it, too," he said.
Lindberg, who served in the Marines from 1942 to 1946, has been much-honored since then.
Surrounded by wall-to-wall memorabilia in what he calls his "war room," he said he was impressed that 3,000 people came out for the unveiling of a veterans memorial in Long Prairie, Minn., that features a 40-foot replica of Mount Suribachi.
And he's pleased with the Richfield memorial designed by Travis Gorshe, an artist, World War II buff and member of the Richfield Arts Commission. "It looks like it's going to be pretty nice," Lindberg said.
It will be unlike the other memorials in at least one respect: It will be built on an 8-ton piece of rock to be brought here from Iwo Jima.
"We're hoping we can pull that off," said Jim Topitzhofer, Richfield's parks and recreation director. "It's a big feat. You're mining this rock from a foreign country, and then you transport it halfway around the world. We're going to try to get the military organizations to help us transport it."
As for getting Japan's permission, Topitzhofer said: "We're working on it right now. We'd gladly use any help...."
If it works out, a bronze bust of Lindberg will be set into the rock. If it doesn't, a full-size bronze statue of Lindberg will be made.
A design and budget will go to the City Council next month, with a goal of completing the memorial in time for Richfield's 100th birthday in 2008. Most of the funding is expected to come from the engraving of veterans' names on 6-foot granite tablets that will be part of the memorial, Gorshe said.
"[Lindberg's] words were, 'Don't make it about me,' but he and his wife love it that Richfield is going to do something," said Gorshe, who heads a group that has been planning the memorial for about a year. "There's been a lot of talk about it. It just needed somebody to take the reins, organize it and get it going."
Gorshe said the group hopes to capitalize on interest in the new movie "Flags of Our Fathers," in which Lindberg is briefly portrayed.
Lindberg said he was upset after the war when no one would believe him when he talked about the two flag-raisings.
But he's happy that Richard Wheeler, a member of Lindberg's company, set the record straight in a 1980 book called "Iwo." Wheeler inscribed a copy of the book for Lindberg: "For my old Marine buddy, Chuck Lindberg. One of Iwo Jima's real heroes."
Donna Halvorsen • 612-673-1709 • dhalvorsen@startribune.com
Ellie
The last of the flag-raisers
Richfield plans to honor one of its own -- the last of the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi.
Donna Halvorsen, Star Tribune
Richfield plans to erect a monument to one of its own: Charles Lindberg, the only living veteran of the World War II flag-raisings on Iwo Jima.
It'll be the fourth Minnesota memorial to Lindberg, and it gives him another chance to explain that the Marines in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo weren't the ones who first planted a U.S. flag on Japanese soil during the ferocious 1945 battle in which more than 6,800 Marines died.
Lindberg, 86, isn't one to call attention to himself, but he does want to set the record straight: that he and five other Marines planted the flag atop Mount Suribachi and that they were photographed by Marine photographer Lou Lowery.
"Our job was to take the mountain," and the Fifth Marine Division did just that, Lindberg said. "I'm not a hero. Everybody did as much as I did."
A bigger flag was raised four hours later. Its raising produced the famous photo by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press.
"Kind of a bad trick to pull," Lindberg said Tuesday at the Richfield home where he has lived with his wife, Vi, for 54 years. Lowery "was kind of sore about it, too," he said.
Lindberg, who served in the Marines from 1942 to 1946, has been much-honored since then.
Surrounded by wall-to-wall memorabilia in what he calls his "war room," he said he was impressed that 3,000 people came out for the unveiling of a veterans memorial in Long Prairie, Minn., that features a 40-foot replica of Mount Suribachi.
And he's pleased with the Richfield memorial designed by Travis Gorshe, an artist, World War II buff and member of the Richfield Arts Commission. "It looks like it's going to be pretty nice," Lindberg said.
It will be unlike the other memorials in at least one respect: It will be built on an 8-ton piece of rock to be brought here from Iwo Jima.
"We're hoping we can pull that off," said Jim Topitzhofer, Richfield's parks and recreation director. "It's a big feat. You're mining this rock from a foreign country, and then you transport it halfway around the world. We're going to try to get the military organizations to help us transport it."
As for getting Japan's permission, Topitzhofer said: "We're working on it right now. We'd gladly use any help...."
If it works out, a bronze bust of Lindberg will be set into the rock. If it doesn't, a full-size bronze statue of Lindberg will be made.
A design and budget will go to the City Council next month, with a goal of completing the memorial in time for Richfield's 100th birthday in 2008. Most of the funding is expected to come from the engraving of veterans' names on 6-foot granite tablets that will be part of the memorial, Gorshe said.
"[Lindberg's] words were, 'Don't make it about me,' but he and his wife love it that Richfield is going to do something," said Gorshe, who heads a group that has been planning the memorial for about a year. "There's been a lot of talk about it. It just needed somebody to take the reins, organize it and get it going."
Gorshe said the group hopes to capitalize on interest in the new movie "Flags of Our Fathers," in which Lindberg is briefly portrayed.
Lindberg said he was upset after the war when no one would believe him when he talked about the two flag-raisings.
But he's happy that Richard Wheeler, a member of Lindberg's company, set the record straight in a 1980 book called "Iwo." Wheeler inscribed a copy of the book for Lindberg: "For my old Marine buddy, Chuck Lindberg. One of Iwo Jima's real heroes."
Donna Halvorsen • 612-673-1709 • dhalvorsen@startribune.com
Ellie