http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070625...t_070625194309
CHICAGO, United States (AFP) - The last of the Iwo Jima flag raisers has died.
Charles W. Lindberg, who was among six marines who raised the first US flag on the Japanese island, died Sunday in Minnesota at the age of 86.
He spent much of his life arguing over one of the most reproduced photos in US history.
AP photographer Joe Rosenthal won a Pulitzer prize for his picture of six men raising the second flag on top of the volcano.
Plastered on posters, postage stamps and the covers of newspapers and magazines, it became a symbol of bravery and victory.
But Lindberg - no relation to the aviator - was among the picture's many critics and fought to counter the mythology which arose around the photo.
Lindberg wanted people to know that the battle was far from over when the flag was raised. He was seriously injured a week later and the battle did not end for nearly a month at the cost of nearly 7,000 American and 20,000 Japanese soldiers.
But he also struggled to win recognition for his fight up the side of Mount Suribachi.
Lindenberg carried five gallons of gasoline on his back and shot fire into the tunnels where the Japanese were hiding as his patrol crawled up the mountain with the first flag.
"Two of our men found a great big long pole up there, about 20-feet long," he told Minnesota Public Radio in an interview two years ago.
"We tied the flag to it, carried it to the highest spot we could find, and raised it. Boy, then the island came alive down below. The troops started to cheer, the ships' whistles went off, it was quite a proud moment."
Four hours later, a larger flag was raised and the marines captured in the photograph became national heros. Lindberg did not hear about it until he arrived home, nursing a shattered arm.
"So I went on home, and started talking about this, I was called a liar and everything else. It was terrible," he told the radio station.
Lindberg kept telling his story and eventual gained the recognition he had longed for, meeting first President Richard Nixon and later President Bill Clinton.
He was also invited to the dedication of the Iwo Jima monument outside of Washington, even though it was modeled on the image of the second flag-raising.
Japan recently renamed the island Iwo To.