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MISSOULA - Louis Charlo, a Native American from the Flathead Reservation, and the USS Missoula are featured in a Clint Eastwood-produced film “The Flags of Our Fathers” that will be shown Oct. 22 at the Wilma Theater.

The film focuses on the battle for Iwo Jima and the men who raised not one, but two, flags on the tiny island’s Mt. Suribachi.

The USS Missoula - named for Missoula County - delivered the 12 Marines from Honolulu to Iwo Jima. Charlo helped raise the first flag supplied from the Missoula. Hours later a senior officer directed that it be replaced by a larger flag more visible to ships off shore.

Charlo was killed by a Japanese sniper’s bullet a week later. Much of the film follows the six men who raised the second flag who became memorialized in the famous photo taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.

A short ceremony prior to the film will include presentation of the flag by a U.S. Marines color guard and a reading by Louis Charlo’s brother Victor from St Ignatius.

On display will be a flag from the Historical Museum at Ft. Missoula provided by former USS Missoula signalman Arthur Loveridge of San Rafael, CA. It is identical to the first flag raised over Iwo Jima.

The film showing also will herald the official start of a campaign by the Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History to construct a model of the USS Missoula.

For further information: Doug Hacker, 406-728-2905 home, 303-229-5085 cell or haughleigh@aol.com.

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