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'Last Flagraiser' Dies At 86
(WCCO) Minneapolis Charles "Chuck" Lindberg, the last survivor of the first American flag-raising over Iwo Jima, passed away Sunday morning at Fairview Southdale Hospital.

Lindberg, who lived in Richfield, Minn., was 86 years old. He had been hospitalized since June 10.

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

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.

Lindberg was shot through the arm on March 1 and evacuated. He learned about the second flag-raising a week later while recovering from the wound, which earned him a Purple Heart.

After his discharge in January 1946, Lindberg -- no relation to Charles Lindbergh the aviator -- went home to Grand Forks, N.D. He moved to Richfield in 1951 and became an electrician.

No one, he said, believed him when he said he raised the first flag at Iwo Jima.

"I was called a liar," he said.

In February 2006, he was honored at a military ceremony marking the anniversary of the Iwo Jima battle. He also recently attended a groundbreaking ceremony on Memorial Day at the site of the new Honoring All Veterans memorial in Richfield, Minn.

The U.S. Navy awarded Charles Lindberg the Silver Star for valor at Iwo Jima in February 1945.

"Repeatedly exposing himself to hostile grenades and machine-gun fire in order that he might reach and neutralize enemy pillboxes 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 the platoon's mission," read the citation.

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 Memorial Chapel. Morris Nilsen Funeral Home, in Richfield, is handling funeral arrangements.

Very sad. A great hero. We are writting this too often any more.

For sure. Something like 1200 leave us each day, right? I think that is what I was told.