Posted on 11/06/2002 1:00:33 AM PST by Snow Bunny
As 11/11 approaches, let us pause to remember those who fought for our country and remember them on Veterans Day. This is an e-mail I received from a good friend in Oklahoma City.
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 nations capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This falls 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, Im a cheesehead, too! Come gather around Cheeseheads, 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 Im 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 didnt turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I dont 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? Thats Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Renes 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 Sgt. 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 didnt say, Lets go kill some Japanese or Lets die for our country. He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, You do what I say, and Ill 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, Youre 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 couldnt 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 mothers 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 Cronkites producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, No, Im sorry sir, my dads not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we dont 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 Campbells soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didnt want to talk to the press. You see, my dad didnt see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, cause they are in a photo and 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 thats the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall 7000 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 wasnt 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 none-the-less.
HJ -- Since this came in e-mail, I checked Snopes for validity. It isn't there. However, you can see James Bradley's story at JamesBradley.com, as well as check his speaking schedule or learn about Iwo Jima.
Today in Anchorage, Alaska:
Sunrise 8:42am
Sunset 4:42pm
Hi 49F
Lo 35
A brief shower or 2........NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Actual yesterday in Anchorage:
Hi 50F
Lo 38F
State Hi 58F Annette
State Lo 7F Anaktuvuk Pass
Since it became operational in 1955, the B-52 has been the main long-range heavy bomber of the Strategic Air Command. It first flew on Apr. 15, 1952. Nearly 750 B-52s were built when production ended in Oct. 1963, of which 170 were -Ds. The -Ds were modified to carry conventional bombs and Quail decoy missiles.
The B-52 has set many records in its 25-plus years of service. On Jan. 18, 1957, three B-52Bs completed the world's first non-stop round-the-world flight by jet aircraft, lasting 45 hours and 19 minutes with only three aerial refuelings en route. It was also a B-52 that made the first airborne hydrogen bomb drop over Bikini Atoll on May 21, 1956. In June 1965, B-52s entered combat when they began flying missions in Southeast Asia (SEA). By Aug. 1973, they had flown 126,615 combat sorties with 17 B-52s lost to enemy action.
The aircraft on display saw extensive service in SEA and was severely damaged by an enemy surface-to-air missile (SAM) on April 9, 1972. In Dec. 1972, after being repaired, it flew four additional missions over North Vietnam. Transferred from the 97th Bomb Wing, Blytheville AFB, Ark., this aircraft was flown to the USAF Museum in Nov. 1978.
SPECIFICATIONS
Span: 185 ft.
Length: 156 ft. 6 in.
Height: 48 ft. 4 in.
Weight: 450,000 lbs. max.
Armament: Four .50-cal. machine guns in tail plus bombs--nuclear or 43,000 lbs. of conventional
Engines: Eight Pratt & Whitney J57s of 12,100 lbs. thrust ea. with water-alcohol injection
Cost: $7,000,000
PERFORMANCE
Maximum speed: 638 mph.
Cruising speed: 526 mph.
Range: 8,338 miles unrefueled
Service Ceiling: 49,400 ft.
Photos/Information courtesy of the US Air Force Museum
Lots of prayers answered last night. Now it is time to act like conservatives and get President Bushes judges passed and on the job, and right this ship.
Good Republican morning, everybody! Good morning, Chad, my election night friend...here's a big cup of coffee - I'll share:
LOL! Very funny! Thanks for that...now get in the tub. ; )
Bradley's book, Flags of Our Fathers, is nothing short of outstanding. Having grown up living under the same roof with a veteran of the battle of Iwo Jima, I was amazed to discover that I really didn't understand the horror my dad survived until I read the book. My dad always got a certain look in his eyes when he talked about it, and I picked up on that - but James makes you taste the sand and feel the ash under your feet. I would urge anyone who hasn't read the book to do it. It ought to be required reading in schools.
Thank you for the post. (I am the proud daughter of an Iwo Jima vet - but also the cousin of one of those who did not come back.)
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