What You Might Not Know About Iwo Jima Statue Eighth Graders Now Know

2015-04-07T21:18:38-04:00

This story was sent to me by a friend. It is not my story. I'm sorry for any misunderstanding on my part. It's a true story and I hope I haven't taken anything away from that. Keith Bodine

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 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. (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 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 Antigua, 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 when 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.

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...please pray for our troops.
Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also ...please pray for our troops still in murderous places around the world.

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.

Response by LTC Stephen C. made Apr 7 at 2015 9:22 PM

2015-04-07T21:22:39-04:00

Extraordinary story, SGT Private RallyPoint Member! Thanks for sharing the story. I know you were proud to be part of it.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 7 at 2015 9:24 PM

2015-04-07T21:24:26-04:00

I found this very moving. Yes, some things move me. I think its awesome that some are taught the history of WWII statues like Iwo Jima. I learned a lot from this story. Things like I'm proud to be an American and I'm very proud of those Marines on Iwo Jima. God Bless America and our Military Forces around the world protecting our rights and our way of life.

Response by Cpl Tou Lee Yang made Apr 8 at 2015 8:28 AM

2015-04-08T08:28:09-04:00

Great story, if only you and your 8th grader would've seen the Iwo Jima Parade conducted from Spring until the end of Summer every Tuesday night, that would be the icing on the cake.

Response by MSgt Jamie Lyons made Apr 8 at 2015 8:36 AM

2015-04-08T08:36:44-04:00

Awesome. Thank you for sharing. It will be one lesson those students will remember for a long time. Awesome.

Response by CMSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 8 at 2015 12:57 PM

2015-04-08T12:57:39-04:00

That gave me both chills and tears in my eyes. Thank you for sharing that.

Response by SGT James Hastings made Apr 8 at 2015 2:14 PM

2015-04-08T14:14:13-04:00

Thank you for a most illuminating story. I shall pass it on. My step-father was a combat medic with Patton's 3rd Army, landing in N. Africa and in all of the battles they had except Normandy. He didn't talk much. While I was going from aid station to MASH to another hospital I saw many "live" soldiers who left parts of their bodies behind them in Korea. None of them talked much and if they did, it wasn't about the battles, it was about home. Yes, War is Hell! But, those thousands of men wounded and killed kept our nation free. I salute them!

Response by Sgt Richard Martin made Apr 13 at 2015 1:35 AM

2015-04-13T01:35:30-04:00

As a former classroom teacher, I would talk to my students about my time in the Corps and they would ask about things that they had seen in the news, on monuments, and things like that. The great thing is that James Bradley wrote "Flags of our Fathers", but they also have a young adult version. I turned a couple of my students onto the book and before the end of the year, 35 students read it. All of the interest was sparked off of my Marine Corps Memorial statue that I have on my desk. So it went from one question, answered to three students, to 35 reading the actual story. Some of those kids are in college now, and I have 3 history majors out of that group. I can't take all the credit, but it is a pretty good feeling.

Response by Cpl Jeff N. made Apr 13 at 2015 12:49 PM

2015-04-13T12:49:11-04:00

I took my oldest son to DC when he was 15 (he is not 23). One of the places we visited was the Marine Corps War Memorial. When we arrived at the memorial, there was a veteran of the battle there as a volunteer. He told my son about his journey to Iwo Jima, about the battle, how and where he was wounded and evacuated etc. My son (as was I) was mesmerized.

My son had shown no inclination to join the military his entire life, even after this chance encounter. About 1/2 way through his senior year in HS he told me he wasn't ready for college and he wanted to join the military and that he was going to talk to the Marine Corps recruiter. I was floored.

I rewind back to the chance conversation and think about how much of an impact it might have had on him. It didn't hurt that his Dad was a Marine but I think that WWII veteran made a big impact as well.

Response by SFC(P) Aaron Fore made Apr 28 at 2015 1:13 PM

2015-04-28T13:13:25-04:00

Truly a satisfying story. SGT Keith Bodine, it may not be your story but the foresight to share this story has made you a force multiplier in my eye's.