>

> 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

>