On The Passing of An Iwo Jima Flag-Raiser...

[KG Erwin]

..that is, the FIRST flag-raising, the one that elicited the response from those who were there.

Quoted from the Pacific War forum, http://www.the-pacific-war.com/phpBB2/index.php and posted by Iwo Jima vet and author Richard Wheeler:

"Chuck Lindberg and I were in combat training with Lieutenant Keith Wells' 3rd Platoon of Easy Company,2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, for the better part of a year before the Iwo Jima invasion, and Chuck and I were close friends. He was a particularly good Marine for me to have as a buddy, since he had already seen extensive combat in the Pacific arena, whereas I had seen none.
It is a curious thing that Chuck served me as an excellent model during those months of training, yet began to worry me as a model the moment we hit Iwo's beach under fire. He was very casual about his security. It is difficult, of course, for a man bearing a flamethrower rig of great size and weight to make himself inconspicuous, but there was more to it than that. Chuck believed that a fighting man who worried unduly about his safety was not paying a proper attention to his job.
Chuck's job as a flamethrower man was one of the most dangerous of any on Iwo Jima, and it was also one of the most important. There was no better way to deal wholesale death upon an enemy that was ingeniously concealed.
Chuck, while exposing himself fearlessly, accounted for hundreds of the Japanese. In later years, he was asked whether he was ever haunted by the slaughter he had inflicted. "No", he said, "I was just doing the job I was trained for. Those hidden Japs were a terrible threat to my buddies and me. They had to be eliminated."
Today there are only six of us left who fought in the front lines with Chuck Lindberg as members of Keith Wells' 3rd Platoon. We will miss our grand old buddy."