This is a specially produced bookplate bearing the genuine signature of Iwo Jima flag raising veteran Charles Lindberg. The signature has been professionally mounted underneath a highly detailed pencil drawing of the famous scene by Steve Teasdale. This bookplate is less than A5 in size and would fit most books on the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Charles W. Lindberg (June 26, 1920 – June 24, 2007) was a United States Marine Corps corporal who fought in three island campaigns during World War II. During the Battle of Iwo Jima, he was a member of the patrol that captured the top of Mount Suribachi where he helped raise the first U.S. flag on the island on February 23, 1945. Six days later, he was wounded in action.
The first flag flown over the southern end of Iwo Jima was regarded to be too small to be seen by the thousands of Marines fighting on the other side of the mountain where the Japanese airfields and most of their troops were located, so it was replaced the same day with a larger flag. Although there were photographs taken of the first flag flying on Mount Suribachi and some which include Lindberg, there is no photograph of Marines raising the first flag. The second flag-raising was photographed by Associated Press combat photographer Joe Rosenthal and became famous after copies of his photograph appeared in the newspapers two days later. Lindberg spent decades trying to bring awareness of the first flag raising and his participation in it.
The Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, is modeled after the historic photograph of six Marines raising the second flag on Iwo Jima.