1) ONE FINGER SALUTE! History is written by men like this! Leading the fight is U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Michael Burghardt of Fountain Valley, California, known as "Iron Mike" or just "Gunny."

2) In this photo, he flips the middle finger to any Iraqi insurgents who may be watching after a command-detonated improvised-explosive-device exploded while he was attempting to defuse it in Ramadi, Iraq on September 19, 2005.

3) He is on his third tour of Iraq. GySgt Burghardt had become a legend in the bomb disposal world after earning the Bronze Star for disabling 64 IED's and destroying 1,548 pieces of ordnance during his second tour.

4) Then on 19 September he got blown up after arriving at a chaotic scene after a bomb had killed four U.S. Marines. He chose not to wear the bulky bomb protection suit. "You can't react to any sniper fire and you get tunnel vision," he explains.

5) So, protected by just a helmet and standard-issue flak jacket, he began what bomb disposal officers term "the longest walk," stepping gingerly into a 5 foot deep and 8 foot wide crater. The earth shifted slightly and he saw a Senao base station with a wire leading from it.

6) GySgt Burkhardt cut the wire and used his 7 inch knife to probe the ground. "I found a piece of red detonating cord between my legs. That's when i knew i was screwed." Realizing he had been sucked into a trap, the Gunny yelled at everyone to stay back.

7) At that moment, an insurgent, probably watching through binoculars, pressed a button on his mobile phone to detonate the secondary device below the GySgt's feet.

8) "A chill went up the back of my neck and then the bomb exploded," he recalls. "As i was in the air i remember thinking, "I don't believe they got me..."I was just ticked off they were able to do it." Then i was lying on the road, not able to feel anything from the waist down."

9) His fellow Marines cut off his trousers to see how badly he was hurt. None could believe his legs were still their. "My dad's a Vietnam vet who's paralyzed from the waist down. I was lying their thinking i didn't want to be in a wheelchair next to my dad."

10) "I didn't want my dad to see me like that." They started to cut away my trousers and i felt a real sharp pain and blood trickling down. Then i wiggled my toes and i thought, "Good, I'm in business." As a stretcher was brought over, adrenaline and anger kicked in.

11) "I decided to walk to the helicopter. I wasn't going to let my teammates see me being carried away on a stretcher," He stood up and gave the insurgents who had blown him up a one-finger salute. "I flipped them one." It was like "OK, I lost that round, but I'll be back soon."

12) Copies of a photograph depicting his defiance, taken by Jeff Bundy for the Omaha World-Herald, adorns the walls of homes across America and that of Colonel John Gronski, the Brigade Commander in Ramadi, who has hailed the image as an exemplar of the warrior spirit.

13) Gunnery Sergeant Burghardt's injuries, burns to his legs and buttocks, kept him off duty for nearly a month and could have earned him a ticket home.

14) But, like his father, who was awarded a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for being wounded in Vietnam, stayed in Ramadi to engage in the battle against insurgents, who are forever coming up with more ingenious ways of killing Americans.

15) Michael Burghardt was awarded 2 Bronze Stars, Purple Heart, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon. Semper Fi Marine.