<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2627" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>All,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This story just came in and I'd like to share it.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dick Schmidt</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Tale of Six Boys"<BR><BR>Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with
the eighth grade class <BR>from Clinton, WI. where I grew up, to videotape their
trip. I greatly enjoy <BR>visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take
some special memories <BR>back with me. This fall's trip was especially
memorable.<BR><BR>On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima
memorial. This <BR>memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and
depicts one of the <BR>most famous photographs in history -- that of the six
brave soldiers <BR>raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the
island of Iwo <BR>Jima, Japan, during WW II.<BR><BR>Over one hundred students
and chaperones piled off the buses and headed <BR>towards the memorial. I
noticed a solitary figure at the base of the <BR>statue, and as I got closer he
asked, "Where are you guys from?"<BR><BR>I told him that we were from Wisconsin.
"Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come <BR>gather around, Cheese heads, and I will
tell you a story."<BR><BR>(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC,
to speak at the <BR>memorial the following day. He was there that night to say
good night to <BR>his dad, who has since passed away. He was just about to leave
when he saw <BR>the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and
received his <BR>permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one
thing to tour <BR>the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington,
D.C., but it is <BR>quite another to get the kind of insight we received that
night.)<BR><BR>When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. (Here
are his <BR>words that night.)<BR><BR>"My name is James Bradley and I'm from
Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on that <BR>statue, and I just wrote a book called
"Flags of Our Fathers" which is #5 <BR>on the New York Times Best Seller list
right now. It is the story of the <BR>six boys you see behind me.<BR><BR>"Six
boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is <BR>Harlon
Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the <BR>Marine
Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were <BR>off to
play another type of game. A game called "War." But it didn't turn <BR>out to be
a game.<BR><BR>Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands.
I don't <BR>say that to gross you out, I say that because there are generals who
stand <BR>in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need
to <BR>know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years
old.<BR><BR>(He pointed to the statue) "You see this next guy? That's Rene
Gagnon from <BR>New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this
photo was <BR>taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a
<BR>photograph... a photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for
<BR>protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. Boys won the battle
<BR>of Iwo Jima. Boys. Not old men.<BR><BR>"The next guy here, the third guy in
this tableau, was Sergeant Mike <BR>Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of
all these guys. They called him <BR>the "old man" because he was so old. He was
already 24. When Mike would <BR>motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't
say, 'Let's go kill some <BR>Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew
he was talking to little <BR>boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and
I'll get you home to <BR>your mothers.'<BR><BR>"The last guy on this side of the
statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from <BR>Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off Iwo
Jima. He went into the White House with <BR>my dad. President Truman told him,
'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How <BR>can I feel like a hero when 250 of
my buddies hit the island with me and <BR>only 27 of us walked off alive?' So
you take your class at school, 250 of <BR>you spending a year together having
fun, doing everything together. Then <BR>all 250 of you hit the beach, but only
27 of your classmates walk off <BR>alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of
horror in his mind. Ira Hayes <BR>died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32 ..
ten years after this picture <BR>was taken.<BR><BR>"The next guy, going around
the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, <BR>Kentucky. A fun-lovin'
hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told <BR>me, 'Yeah, you know, we
took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop <BR>General Store. Then we strung
wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't <BR>get down. Then we fed them Epsom
salts. Those cows crapped all night. Yes, <BR>he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy.
Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of <BR>19. When the telegram came to tell
his mother that he was dead, it went to <BR>the Hilltop General Store. A
barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his <BR>mother's farm. The neighbors could
hear her scream all night and into the <BR>morning. The neighbors lived a
quarter of a mile away.<BR><BR>"The next guy, as we continue to go around the
statue, is my dad, John <BR>Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised.
My dad lived until <BR>1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter
Cronkite's producers, <BR>or the New York Times would call, we were trained as
little kids to say, <BR>'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada
fishing. No, there <BR>is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is
coming back.' My dad <BR>never fished or even went to Canada. Usually, he was
sitting there right at <BR>the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to
tell the press that he <BR>was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the
press.<BR><BR>"You see, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks
these guys <BR>are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad
knew <BR>better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In
Iwo <BR>Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in
Iwo <BR>Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain.<BR><BR>"When I was a little
boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a <BR>hero. When I went home
and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I <BR>want you always to
remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who <BR>did not come back. Did
NOT come back.'<BR><BR>"So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three
died on Iwo Jima, and <BR>three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000
boys died on Iwo Jima in <BR>the worst battle in the history of the Marine
Corps. My voice is giving <BR>out, so I will end here. Thank you for your
time."<BR><BR>Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a
flag <BR>sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the
heartfelt <BR>words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe
not a <BR>hero for the reasons most people would believe, but a hero
nonetheless.<BR><BR>REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to
be a great day.<BR><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>