[Vision2020] A Tale of Six Boys

[Dick Schmidt]

All,

This story just came in and I'd like to share it.

Dick Schmidt

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" 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 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 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 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. 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. 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.

REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day.

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