April Book Review

by Jim Horton

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS

by James Bradley

If I may ask everyone’s forbearance, this piece will be a discussion of the book, and also a number of reminiscences of the World War Two and post war period. There are also two short personal recollections about two of the flag raisers. Six Marines raised the second American Flag on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945 resulting in the very famous photograph which was reproduced all over the nation and also became a U.S. postage stamp. It became a symbol of valor and the indomitable American spirit. There are also observations made by two people who were adults in World War Two, one of these being Al Dunlap a participant in the battle of Iwo Jima and the other being my Aunt Virginia.

The author is the son of John Bradley one of the flag raisers and a Navy Corpsman. The book was a result of a strong curiosity by a son as to what were his father’s experiences on Iwo Jima as to the battle itself and the raising of the flag. This was further compounded by the fact that the family learned their father was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroic service on the Island. The Navy Cross is the highest award a member of the Navy can be given except for the Congressional Medal of Honor. What did his father do to receive this award, and why did he not want to share his experiences were questions the son wanted to find answers for as well as learning about the other five members of the flag detail. John Bradley spent four years writing this book The story is compelling, and the interest and the investment in time by the author is praiseworthy.

The book covers the lives of each of the flag raisers from childhood, Marine Corps training and their actual combat experiences on Iwo itself. The post war experiences of the three flag raisers who left the Island alive are chronicled in detail. The accidental experience of raising the flag strongly affected their lives. The picture became a rallying force for the nation. A few facts about the battle of Iwo Jima; 70,000 American service people mostly Marines fought in the battle. The Japanese defenders consisted of 22,000 soldiers and sailors almost all of whom died on Iwo Jima. As to the Americans, 7,000 died and over 18,000 were wounded during the 34 day battle. It was the worse loss of life in a battle for Americans since the battle of Gettysburg. More medals for valor were awarded to the Iwo Jima fighters than any other World War 2 Battle. Twenty seven Marines and Sailors received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their bravery on Iwo Jima.

This was the most fortified Island in the Pacific when our six flag raisers landed there on February 19, 1945 with the third wave of attackers. To honor these young men, I am going to name them and their hometowns. They are: IRA HAYES, Sacaton, Arizona; JOHN "Doc" BRADLEY, Appleton, Wisconsin; MICHAEL STRANK, Franklin Borough, Pennsylvania; RENE GAGNON, Manchester, New Hampshire; FRANKLIN SOUSLEY, Hilltop, Kentucky; and HARLON BLOCK, Westlaco, Texas. There were part of the 5^th Marine Division, 28^th Regiment, 2^nd Battalion, Easy Company, 2^nd and 3^rd Platoons. Marines Strank, Block and Sousley died on the island. The six represented a geographic cross section of America at that time along with diverse national backgrounds such as Michael Strank a son of Czech immigrants and Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian. There were no Blacks, Asians or Hispanics in the group, and the former two were not in the Marine Corps in the 40’s. The childhoods of these six men were similar in many ways to that enjoyed by us in the 1940’s and 50’s. We had a little more money, and a few more things, but overall there is identity there.

As to a critique, I struggled reading the mid sections of the book. It did not flow, was disconnected, and a little hard to follow. At the end, I was really glad to have spent the time to have read this book. I have read lots of war history and books on battles especially D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge, but the real life attachments I felt to these young men was something I didn't expect as a result of reading this book. Dispassionate discussions of tactics and strategies do not bring home the costs of injuries and death to families and individuals who experienced these losses as related in the book. To me, reading FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, made World War Two in the Pacific and this battle very personal.

After finishing the book, and looking again at Chapter One, it made a lot more sense to me to close the book with the Bradley family visit to Iwo Jima and the climb up to the flag raising site on Mt. Suribachi than to have it at the beginning. To be picky, the descriptions by Mr. Bradley of the desert and the plants on the Gila River Indian Reservation were inaccurate from all of my observations. The saguaro cactus is light green and not dark green, the desert has many colors but I have not seen pink, and the mesquite bush is a tree, and what he saw were probably brittle brush and creosote bushes. It makes one wonder if other observations were inaccurate, but it does not take away from the story he told.

PERSONAL and OTHER MEMORIES of IWO JIMA and THE FLAG RAISERS

I do remember V-E Day and V-J Day, but do not recall the battle of Iwo Jima. I do recall going over to Jim Michie’s deluxe apartment on 48^th Street and Washington Avenue and watching the television series VICTORY at SEA which were a series of combat films about the war in the Pacific. We would then listen to the LP record of that wonderful sound track music composed by the late great Richard Rogers.

My wife Anita met her first husband, Dave Kopplin, at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin the home of "Doc" Bradley. Dave’s aunt was a high school Latin teacher at Appleton High School, and one of her students before the war was "Doc" Bradley.

When I went off to Washington D.C. in 1955 to go to college, I remember a bar on 9^th Street next to the Gayety Burlesque Theater which prominently displayed a picture of Ira Hayes in the window. I believe he visited this bar while he was in Washington for the dedication of the Iwo Jima Memorial.

I discussed the picture with my Aunt, and she vividly remembers it in the paper, and what a sensation and a big deal it was at the time in 1945. She said everyone was so patriotic at the time, and the War Bond Rallies were tremendous things during which times everyone tried to buy bonds.

Al Dunlap, a member of my church in Scottsdale, related to me some of his experiences on Iwo Jima. Al experienced the training as was discussed in the book, boot camp at San Diego, a short stay at Camp Pendleton for landing exercises, to the Big Island and Camp Tarawa for further training, liberty in Honolulu where he was too young to go into the bars but ran into an old friend from the fourth grade.

He served with the 27^th Regiment of the 5^th Division, 1^st Battalion in Bravo Company. Al was an assistant in a BAR gun crew, and was in the first assault wave to land on the beach. As discussed in the book they were served steak and eggs that morning according to Al. The beach he described and the landing was very much like we read in the book. All of his fellow Marines and himself felt a morale boost when they saw the first flag flying from Mt. Suribachi. It meant for them, no more crossfire from that area at least.

He was wounded by shrapnel on the fourth day of the battle while his company was in reserve, and he was resting. The story of his evacuation to a hospital ship would make you grit your teeth for the pain he suffered with one leg broken in two places and the other stripped of much of its flesh. The Doctors must of have been good because Al has made numerous hikes to the bottom of Grand Canyon. Almost everyone in his company was either wounded or killed on Iwo Jima. He was lying in a hospital bed when he heard about Hiroshima, and became one joyful Marine, the war was over for him. He did meet James Bradley at a 5^th Marine Reunion, and really liked him.

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