On Veterans Day~~To Ira Hayes

[Maddy McCall]

Ira Hayes (at far left in photo above)


b. January 12, 1923 Sacaton, Arizona
d. January 24, 1955 Bapchule, Arizona

Ira Hayes was a Pima Indian. When he enlisted in the Marine Corps, he had hardly ever been off the Reservation. His Chief told him to be an "Honorable Warrior" and bring honor upon his family. Ira was a dedicated Marine. Quiet and steady, he was admired by his fellow Marines who fought alongside him in three Pacific battles.

When Ira learned that President Roosevelt wanted him and the other survivors to come back to the US to raise money on the 7th Bond Tour, he was horrified. To Ira, the heroes of Iwo Jima, those deserving honor, were his "good buddies" who died there.

At the White House, President Truman told Ira, "You are an American hero." But Ira didn't feel pride. As he later lamented, "How could I feel like a hero when only five men in my platoon of 45 survived, when only 27 men in my company of 250 managed to escape death or injury?"

The Bond Tour was an ordeal for Ira. He couldn't understand or accept the adulation . . . "It was supposed to be soft duty, but I couldn't take it. Everywhere we went people shoved drinks in our hands and said 'You're a Hero!' We knew we hadn't done that much but you couldn't tell them that."

Ira in later years . . .
Ira went back to the reservation attempting to lead an anonymous life. But it didn't turn out that way . . . "I kept getting hundreds of letters. And people would drive through the reservation, walk up to me and ask, 'Are you the Indian who raised the flag on Iwo Jima"

Ira tried to drown his "Conflict of Honor" with alcohol. Arrested as drunk and disorderly, his pain was clear . . . "I was sick. I guess I was about to crack up thinking about all my good buddies. They were better men than me and they're not coming back. Much less back to the White House, like me."

In 1954, Ira reluctantly attended the dedication of the Iwo Jima monument in Washington. After a ceremony where he was lauded by President Eisenhower as a hero once again, a reporter rushed up to Ira and asked him, "How do you like the pomp & circumstances?" Ira just hung his head and said, I don't."

Ira died three months later after a night of drinking. As Ira drank his last bottle of whiskey he was crying and mumbling about his "good buddies." Ira was 32.

The Ballad of Ira Hayes
Written by Peter LaFarge
Recorded by Johnny Cash on 3/5/64

Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land

Down the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Till the white man stole the water rights
And the sparklin' water stopped

Now Ira's folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered
And forgot the white man's greed

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war


There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill,
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again

And when the fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Ira returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored; Everybody shook his hand

But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
And when did the Indians dance

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Then Ira started drinkin' hard;
Jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it
like you'd throw a dog a bone!

He died drunk one mornin'
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin' thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died

[JohnKleeb]

1. Happy Veterans day to all vets

speaking of Ira and the other flgaraisers.



RIP Mike Strank
chael Strank, participant in the famous flag raising on Iwo Jima, was born at Conemaugh, Pennsylvania, on 10 November 1919, the son of Vasil and Martha Strank, natives of Czechoslovakia (his father was also known as Charles Strank). He attended the schools of Franklin Borough, Pennsylvania, and graduated from high school in 1937. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps where he remained for 18 months and then became a highway laborer for the state.

Michael Strank enlisted in the regular Marine Corps for four years at Pittsburgh on 6 October 1939. He was assigned to the Recruit Depot at Parris Island where, after completing recruit training in December, Private Strank was transferred to Headquarters Company, Post Troops, at the same base.

Transferred to Provisional Company W at Parris Island on 17 January 1941, Strank, now a Private First Class, sailed for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arriving on the 23d. Strank was assigned to Headquarters Company, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Brigade (on 1 February, the 1st Marine Brigade was redesignated the 1st Marine Division). On 8 April, now assigned to Company K, he returned to the States and proceeded to Parris Island. In September, Strank moved with the division to New River, North Carolina (now known as Camp Lejeune). He was promoted to Corporal on 23 April 1941, and was advanced to Sergeant on 26 January 1942.

With the 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, early in April 1942, he journeyed cross-country to San Diego, California, from whence he sailed on the 12th. On 31 May, he landed on Uvea, largest of the Wallis Islands.

In September, after a short tenure with the 22d Marines, he was transferred to the 3d Marine Raider Battalion, also at Uvea. With the raiders, he participated in the landing operations and occupation of Pavuvu Island in the Russell Islands from 21 February until 18 March, and in the seizure and occupation of the Empress Augusta Bay area on Bougainville from 1 November until 12 January 1944. On 14 February, he was returned to San Diego for rest and reassignment.

On return from leave, Sergeant Strank was assigned to Company E, 2d Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division. After extensive training at Camp Pendleton and in Hawaii, Strank landed on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945.

After the fall of Mount Surbachi, he moved northward with his unit. On 1 March, while attacking Japanese positions in northern Iwo Jima, he was fatally wounded by enemy artillery fire. He was buried in the 5th Marine Division Cemetery with the last rites of the Catholic Church. On 13 January 1949, his remains were reinterred in Grave 7179, Section 12, Arlington National Cemetery.

Sergeant Strank was entitled to the following decorations and medals: Bronze Star, Purple Heart (awarded posthumously), Presidential Unit Citation with one star (for Iwo Jima), American Defense Service Medal with base clasp (for his service in Cuba before the war), American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with four stars (for Pavuvu, Bougainville, Consolidation of the Northern Solomons, and Iwo Jima), and the World War II Victory Medal.
BTW he's related to me, thats why I did this. He's the guy whose right hand you see.

[Maddy McCall]

2. Thanks for adding this, JK

:-)

[JohnKleeb]

4. sure always makes me sad though

:( he was a great man.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. One of them was a Hospital Corpsman...don't forget us!

Hospital Corpsman John Bradley was with the Marines as they raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi. He was one of the three survivors from the flag raising to leave Iwo Jima. John Bradley died January 11, 1994 at the age of 70.


You guys are the Marine's doctors; There's no better in the business than a Navy Corpsman...." Lieutenant General Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller, U.S.M.C


Semper fi, Doc Bradley.
Semper fi, Chesty

Semper fi all.

HM3, USN FMF
1972-1975

[Maddy McCall]

5. Here's to John Bradley

:thumbsup:

[JohnKleeb]

6. Doc was a good man

the book Flags of Our Fathers is so touching but made me cry so much, chick sigh he was only a boy.

[wellstone_democrat]

7. To Hayes, Strank, Bradley and the rest

thank you.

[JohnKleeb]

8. thank you

Gagnon, Sousley, and Block were the other three btw.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. well, and Joe Rosenthal... don't forget him either

http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pulitzer/rosenthal.html

[Maddy McCall]

10. Kick

[dbt]

11. Viet Nam Veterans are especially close to my heart.

They were raised in a black-and-white world. When they were kids, you could actually tell the good guys from the bad guys. They grew up with notions of honor and duty. And when their country called them, they answered.

Then, when their feet touched the ground in Viet Nam, the mask fell away from Uncle Sam's face: he was a vampire, thirsty for their blood. It flowed like so many rivers.

Their friends died by the tens of thousands, they saw the horrors that their fathers who fought on Saipan wouldn't even talk about.

Thirty, forty years later, their wounds are same-day fresh. Now, they get to watch their own sons march away to a different sort of jungle--commanded to do so by withered little men who know nothing of the cost of war, only the profits.

Thank you, Viet Nam Veterans. You literally kept fools like me FREE!

:loveya:
dbt

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

12. Well, I understand your sentiment about being kept free

The sad truth of the matter is that war was pointless except as a hedge against China, who, farm from supporting VietNam as they had North Korea, was more than happy to let us kick them around for a while.
I am ashamed to say the foreign affairs team of the US in those days (and most likely now, too) did not know the difference in Viets, Mings, Montngards, Khemmers, and Thais.

Historically Chinas only worthy adversary for domination of S. Asia was Viet Nam.

we should have known that, and acted differently.

[Maddy McCall]

13. kick once more.

[Sabriel]

14. One of my favorite war songs

If there is such a thing.... I played that during our unit on war, and the students were amazed, both at his history and the fact they'd never heard of him before.