This book was written by James Bradley who discovered that his father was one of the men who raised the flag when he was going thru his father's things after his death. His father never spoke of it. Unlike Did you know I served in Viet Nam Kerry.
His father joined the Navy so he wouldn't be an infantryman slogging thru mud, became a Corpman and was assigned to the Marines. Bradley made it his mission to track down any of the surviving flag raisers, to learn their stories and to learn first hand about the battle from as many surviving Marines as he could. It was a very tough book to read, but I figured if they could live it, I could read it. Hope the film does it justice.
He did? Golly! I didn't know that!
Maybe if he'd mentioned that during his campaign, he might've gotten more votes!
Ah, the virtues of 20/20 hindsight.