Marine Corps Sgt Leon C. Lambert from Colorado used to be known in 1st Tank Bravo Company as a good tank mechanic.
But when the marines entered east Baghdad on Wednesday and Sgt Lambert drove his M-88 A1 Hercules tank into Ferdoos Square, he had an inspiration.
"I asked my executive officer if we could tear down the statue. He told me it was not our place," Sgt Lambert said yesterday, basking in his newfound fame as the wrecker of Saddam Hussein's statue.
"Then one of the Iraqi citizens asked if we could tear it down, and we said they could tear it down themselves," Sgt Lambert continued. "We gave them the rope and they tried for about 45 minutes, but they were unsuccessful so they asked our battalion commander and he told us to assist the Iraqi people.
"We raised the boom on the 88 and let the Iraqi citizens climb on the boom up to the statue and they placed the cable around the neck and waited for my lieutenant- colonel to give the order."
In the event, the huge black statue did not crash to the ground - that would have been more dramatic - but leaned slowly forward and hung in mid-air, finally breaking at the shins.
"The Iraqi people cut the head off with a sledgehammer and dragged it around the square with a chain," Sgt Lambert said proudly. But before the symbolic beheading, an awkward attempt was made at allegory. A US flag was placed over the head of the still erect statue.
"That flag came from the Pentagon on 9/11," Sgt Lambert said with something like awe in his voice. "Lt Tim McGloughlan [a colleague\] was there on the day. We brought it all the way from 29 Palms. We drove our tanks all the way from Kuwait City with the flag in a plastic bag."
He added: "In my opinion, if you support terroristic activities, then you support 9/11."
Sgt Lambert chose Cpl Edward Chin to place the flag over Saddam's head, because Chin is from New York City. But no one was quite sure what the Stars and Stripes over Saddam's head was supposed to signify, so it was replaced by an Iraqi flag - at the behest of "the Iraqi people", according to Sgt Lambert.
"Sometimes we all question why we are doing this. I knew at that moment [when the statue fell\] that we had given the Iraqi people new hope to live free from fear."
Lt Col Bryan McCoy, who authorised the bringing down of the statue, called Sgt Lambert the "hero of the day".
"We rolled in and secured the area and the Iraqi people asked us for ropes and chains to pull the statue down," Lt Col McCoy said. "It was the Iraqi people's idea. We just lent them a hand."
Sgt Lambert initially called the crowd on Ferdoos Square "a mob", but when I asked what he meant, he said it "wasn't negative". The young men in tracksuits who requested the assistance of the Marine Corps were, both admitted, very similar to the young men who are pillaging their way across the capital.
Wasn't there just a hairline between "the people" and a mob, I asked Lt Col McCoy. "Certainly," he answered. "This is a very delicate situation that we need to work our way through. We've got a handle on it. There will be isolated flare-ups, but in terms of wholesale anarchy - no."