The Boys of Iwo Jima
(From the book, Straight From the Heart)
By Michael T. Powers
Each year my video production company is hired to go to Washington, D.C. with the eighth grade class from Clinton, Wisconsin 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 Marines raising the
American flag at the top of Mount Surabachi on the Island of Iwo Jima,
Japan during WW II. 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 Cheesehead, too! Come gather around Cheeseheads, and I will tell you a story."
James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, D.C. to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good-night to his dad, who has since 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, D.C. 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. Here are his words from that night:
"My name is
James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on that statue, and I
just wrote a book called Flags of Our Fathers which
is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. 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 twenty-one, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that
to gross
you out; I say that because there are generals 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 seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen years old.
(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 eighteen years old. Boys 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 twenty-four. When Mike would motivate his boys in
training camp, he didn't say, "Let's go kill the enemy" 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 walked 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 twenty-seven 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 twenty-seven of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age of thirty-two, 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 Epson salts.
Those cows crapped all night." Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy.
Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of nineteen. 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. The
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 Kronkite'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 right there
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, my dad
didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they
are in a photo and a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley
from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held
over 200 boys as they died, and when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and
screamed in 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, 7000 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 in
his own eyes, but a hero nonetheless.
End Note: A few days before placing the flag, John Bradley had braved enemy mortar and machine-gun fire to administer first aid to a wounded Marine and then drag him to safety. For this act of heroism he would receive the Navy Cross, an award second only to the Medal of Honor. Bradley never mentioned his feat to his family. Only after his death did Bradley's son, James, begin to piece together the facts of his father's heroism.
Michael T. Powers
HeartTouchers@aol.com
Michael is happily married to his high school sweetheart
Kristi, and has two young boys. His stories appear in fourteen inspirational
books, including many from the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. The story above
is from his book: Straight From the Heart "A Celebration of Life". To
read more or to join the thousands of world-wide readers on their inspirational
e-mail list called HeartTouchers, send an e-mail to: Hearttouchers-subscribe@myinjesus.com
or visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com
Previous Story Back to Calendar Next Story