>
> A Tale of Six Boys"
>
> 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."
>
> (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 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 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". 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 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 17, 18, and 19 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 18 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 cal led
> 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 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 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. 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. 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 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, 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 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, 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.
> REMINDER:
> Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day. You are
> free because some vet died to keep you free.
>
> Great story - worth your time. Please pass along
>
