Passed on from a friend.. Pause for a moment this weekend to
remember those that did not come back..
>
>
>
>An interesting story below that makes you pause and consider the real
>
>meaning of Memorial Day. Hope you all have a safe and enjoyable
>
>holiday.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>The Boys of Iwo Jima
>
>
>
> Each year I am hired to go to Washington DC with
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> the eight grade class from Clinton, WI where I grew
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> up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting
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> our nation's capitol, and each year I take some
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> special memories back with me. This fall's trip was
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> especially memorable.
>
>
>
> On the last night of our trip we stopped at the
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> Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest
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> Bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most
>
> famous photographs in history - that of the six brave
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> soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a
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> rocky hill on the Island of Iwo Jima, Japan during
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> WW II. Over one hundred students and chaperones
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> piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial.
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> I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue,
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> and as I got closer he asked, "Where are you guys
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> from?" I told him that we were from Wisconsin.
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> "Hey, I'm a Cheesehead too! Come gather around
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> Cheeseheads, and I will tell you a story."
>
>
>
> (James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC
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> to speak at the memorial the following day. He was
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> there that night to say good night to his dad, who had
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> since passed away. He was just about to leave when
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> he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke
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> to us, and received his permission to share what he said
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> from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the
>incredible
>
> monuments filled with history in Washington, DC. But it
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> is quite another to get the kind of insight we received
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> that night. When all had gathered around he reverently
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> began to speak. Here are his words that night.)
>
>
>
> "My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo,
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> Wisconsin. My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote
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> a book called "Flags of Our Father's" which is #5 on
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> the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is
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> the story of the six boys you see behind me. Six boys
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> raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in
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> the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state
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> football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with
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> all the senior members of his football team. They
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> were off to play another type of game. A game called
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> "War." But it didn't turn out to be a game.
>Harlon,
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> at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his
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> hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that
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> because there are generals who stand in front of this
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> statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys
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> need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were
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> 17, 18, and 19 years old.
>
>
>
> (He pointed to the statue.)
>
>
>
> You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from
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> New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the
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> moment this photo was taken, and looked in the
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> webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph.
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> A photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there
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> for protection, because he was scared. He was 18
>
> years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima. Boys.
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> Not old men.
>
>
>
> The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was
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> Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the
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> hero of all these guys. They called him the "old man"
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> because he was so old. He was already 24.
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> When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp,
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> he didn't say, "Let's go kill some Japanese" or "Let's
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> die for our country." He knew he was talking to little
>
> boys. Instead he would say, "You do what I say, and
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> I'll get you home to your mothers."
>
>
>
> The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes,
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> a Pema Indian from Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off
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> Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad.
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> President Truman told him, "You're a hero." He told
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> reporters, "How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my
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> buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us
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> walked off alive?"
>
>
>
> So you take your class at school. 250 of you spending
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> a year together having fun, doing everything together.
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> Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your
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> classmates walk off alive.
>
>
>
> That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his
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> mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the
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> 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
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> 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
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> the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we
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> fed them Epson salts. Those cows crapped all night."
>
> Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died
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> on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came
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> to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the
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> Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that
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> telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors
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> could hear her scream all night and into the morning.
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> The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.
>
>
>
> The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue
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> is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin,
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> where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he
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> would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's
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> 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
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> Canada. Usually he was sitting there right at the
>
> table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell
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> the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to
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> talk to the press. You see, my dad didn't see himself
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> as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes,
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> 'cause they are in a photo and a monument. My dad
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> knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from
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> Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably
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> held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died
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> in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain.
>
>
>
> When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told
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> me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told
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> 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
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> died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national
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> heroes. Overall 7000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the
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> 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
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> of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to
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> life before our eyes with the heartfelt words of a son
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> who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe
>
> not a hero for the reasons most people would believe,
>
> but a hero none-the-less.
>
>
>
>
>--- Corky Towle
>
>--- corky1747@earthlink.net
>
>--- EarthLink: It's your Internet.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 23:18:39 PDT