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 WW II.
Over one hundred students and chaperone's 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.'
(James Bradley 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. (Here are
his words 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 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 who 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 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 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 caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys
as they died. And when boys died in 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.
We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for
us to live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice
Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the current War on
Terrorism and all the wars in-between that sacrifice was made for our
freedom..
Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray
for those still in murderous unrest around the world.
STOP and thank God for being alive and being free at someone else's
sacrifice.
God Bless You and God Bless America .
REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great
day.
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
Hope everyone has a safe day!
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