With the death this week of Charles W. Lindberg, Ray Jacobs became the last surviving member of the Marine patrol that raised the first U.S. flag on Japanese soil in World War II.
But Ray didn't have much time to ponder the distinction because his house was among those burned by wildfires at Lake Tahoe, Calif.
I had the honor of talking with Ray several times as I worked on the story of Phil Ward, a Crawfordsville, Ind., man who is prominently featured in Sgt. Lou Lowery's photos of that first flag-raising on Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima. Ward died in late December, 2005, at his winter home in Texas. He was a modest guy and only a few of his closest friends knew he participated in the first flag-raising.
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