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
Ira returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored; Everybody shook his hand
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
I love that old Johnny Cash song ("The Ballad of Ira Hayes"). I looked for it after I read the excellent book "Flags of Our Fathers" about the battle at Iwo and the men who raised the second flag.
I grew up in Arizona and was horrified that (Democrat) Governor Janet Napolitano issued an executive order to rename "Sqaw Peak". It is now called "Piestawa Peak" and there is the "Piestawa Peak Freeway". She named it after Lori Piestawa who was the first Indian woman killed in combat.
I'm sorry about her death but she was killed being in the wrong place at the wrong time. How many of our soldiers are killed by IEDs every day? If she wanted to name a monument after an Indian from Arizona...they should have selected Ira Hayes, a genuine war hero who went through Hell fighting in Iwo Jima.
I think she's infected with an incurable case of PC--I hope the voters in Arizona boot her rear end out of office in 2006