Russell W. Lippert

 Colonel Robert M. Neiman described the moment Lippert gave his life to his country in his memoir, "Tanks on the Beaches". "Division called at about two in the morning and said the (previous) attack had been repulsed. I recalled Lippert (from a hill embankment) and he and the men I sent to stay with him came sliding back down the embankment. Apparently some Japanese had spotted them coming back.....mortar rounds began dropping all around us. "

"The shelling had stopped, and we looked around and saw men gathering. Lippert was lying flat and on his back. He had a hole in his chest and when we turned him over.....half of his back was gone."

However, this was not the final story of Lippert's epitaph. Neiman goes on to explain that a photographer and war correspondent had lost his helmet and needed one upon arriving on shore, D-Day plus 4. He asked Marines who were assigned to burial duty where he could find a helmet. Stack upon stack of helmets were lined along the shoreline from dead Marines. The correspondent grabbed on off the closest stack.

The name on the inside of the helmet was Lippert. The correspondent needing the helmet was Joe Rosenthal. Yes. The Joe Rosenthal who took most iconic image in the entire war of Marines hosting the flag on Mount Suribachi.