A Marine sergeant from Northern California played a key role in the dramatic toppling of a huge statue of Saddam Hussein when U.S. forces entered Baghdad.

Sergeant David Southerland of Contra Costa County looped a chain around the neck of the statue and used his tank hauler to yank the monument to the ground on Wednesday.

He called his relatives in Pinole after the statue fell and told them what he´d been up to. He was also one of the Marines who briefly put an American Flag over Saddam´s face before the statue fell. It was quickly taken down and replaced with an Iraqi flag.