An Old Soldier Sends His Salute

Charles Lindberg’s voice carries a commanding presence in the nation’s swirling controversy over the Supreme Court’s recent decision to permit the desecration of the flag as a protest. Lindberg, of Minneapolis, is the sole surviving Marine who helped raise the first U.S. flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima during World War II, and he backs President Bush’s call for a constitutional amendment to protect the flag. “I like that. I like that very much,” said Lindberg, 69, who called the flag a “unique national symbol.” Lindberg was not one of the Marines who hoisted the flag in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo that is perhaps the most famous picture to come out of the war. That flag was raised four hours after Lindberg and five others raised a smaller flag on Mt. Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945. “I wish I had those (Supreme Court) judges up on that mountain when we raised that flag,” Lindberg said. “Maybe they would learn something. Maybe they would learn what it means to people. When that flag went up, and to hear all those cheers from the harbor, it really made you proud.”

--Because of Vinod Chachra, president of the Virginia Tech Library Systems in Blacksburg, Va., Soviet citizens can look to the day when they will not have to wait five days to borrow a book from the Lenin Library. Chachra is opening discussions later this month in Moscow with the library’s director, Nikolai Semyonovich Kartashov, to set up a computerized card catalogue system, which is expected to be operational in four years. “This is really opening up access to information,” Chachra said. “In one sense, this is bringing in more equality with the technology. By automating the system, it greatly increases the access to all people.” The library is located off Red Square and has 35 million volumes--in comparison, the Library of Congress has 26 million books and the New York Public Library has 6 million. It was founded in 1862 as the Rumiantsev Library, and it is said that such luminaries as Lenin, Tolstoy, Dostoevski and Chekhov studied there.

--From Boise, Ida., comes word that the Andrus and Church families have engaged in a merger, of sorts. Kelly Andrus, 28, the youngest daughter of Gov. Cecil D. Andrus, announced her engagement to Chase Church, 31, son of the late Sen. Frank Church. A late summer or early fall marriage is planned. The governor had served as Interior secretary under President Jimmy Carter. Frank Church, who died in 1984, served in the Senate for 24 years and ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 1976.