POST # 54
Today, Feb 23 is the 75th anniversary of the Flag Raising during the Battle Of IWO JIMA in 1945 during WWII....Came across the following story...you may find it moving as we did...
Six Boys and 13 Hands
Each year I am hired to
go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI where I grew
up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation’s capitol, and
each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was
especially memorable.
On the last night of our
trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze
statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history
-- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a
rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WWII...
This
memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most
famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the
American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan,
during WWII.
Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards
the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I
got closer he asked, 'Where are you guys from?'
I told him that we were from Wisconsin. 'Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come
gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story.'
(It was James Bradley who just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at
the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to
his dad, who had passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses
pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to
share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible
monuments filled with history in Washington,DC, but it is quite another to get
the kind of insight we received that night.)
When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak:
'My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin My dad is on that
statue, and I wrote a book called 'Flags of Our Fathers'. It is the story of
the six boys you see behind me.
Six boys raised the flag.
The first guy putting the pole in the ground is
Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the
Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to
play another type of game. A game called 'War.' But it didn't turn out to be a
game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't
say that to gross you out, I say that because there are people who stand in
front of this statue and talk about the glory of war You guys need to know that
most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old - and it was so hard
that the ones who did make it home never even would talk to their families
about it.
(He pointed to the statue) 'You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New
Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and
looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph...a
photograph of his girlfriend Rene put that in there for protection because he
was scared He was 18 years old. It was just boys who won the battle of Iwo
Jima. Boys. Not old men.
The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank.
Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys.They called him the 'old
man' because he was so old He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys
in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die
for our country' He knew he was talking to little boys.. Instead he would say,
'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'
The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from
Arizona. Ira Hayes was one of them who lived to walk off Iwo Jima. He went into
the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero' He told
reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with
me and only 27 of us walked off alive?'
So you take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having
fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27
of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror
in his mind. Ira Hayes carried the pain home with him and eventually died dead
drunk, face down, drowned in a very shallow puddle, at the age of 32 (ten years
after this picture was taken).
The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop,
Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me,
'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store.
Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we
fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night.' Yes, he was a fun-lovin'
hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram
came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store.
A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could
hear her scream all night and into the morning. Those neighbors lived a quarter
of a mile away.
'The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley,
from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he
would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers or the New York
Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my
dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No,
we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to
Canada. Usually, he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's
soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to
talk to the press.
'You see, like Ira Hayes, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks
these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad
knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a combat
caregiver. On Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And boys
died on Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed, without any medication or help
with the pain.
'When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a
hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want
you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not
come back. Did NOT come back.'
'So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and
three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the
worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I
will end here. Thank you for your time.'
Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag
sticking out of the top.
It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt
words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a hero
for the reasons most people would believe, but a hero nonetheless.
One thing I learned while on tour with my 8th grade students in DC that is not
mentioned here is . . .that if you look at the statue very closely and count
the number of 'hands' raising the flag, there are 13. When the man who made the
statue was asked why there were 13, he simply said the 13th hand was the hand of
God.
Great story - worth your time - worth every American's time. Please pass it on!
NOTE>>>
Two
subsequent Marine Corps investigations into the identities of the six men in
the photograph determined in 1946 and 1947 that Henry Hansen was misidentified
as being Block (both Marines died six days after the photo), and in May and
June 2016 that Bradley was not in the photograph and Pfc. Harold Schultz was.
