Did you know this picture was taken 61 yrs ago today? - Page 2

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Did you know this picture was taken 61 yrs ago today? (Page 2 of 2)

Posted: 2/23/2006 11:03:18 AM EDT

[#1]

Quoted:
"a US Marine Corps for the next 500 years"
Adm "Bull" Halsey

Actually Brother, that quote was from James Forrestal, the SecNav, who happened to have gone ashore that day with Gen. Howlin' Mad Smith, the CG of the FMF, and perhaps the most under-appreciated general in WWII, if not in history.

Ironically, after the war then SecDef Forrestal tried to disband the Marine Corps but was overruled by Congress.

Semper Fi Marine!

Paramarines326

Posted: 2/23/2006 11:10:28 AM EDT

[#2]

I did. In fact I was disgusted Monday when I went down to watch the history channel on my MIL's TV and there wasn't anything on about the entire battle.

Posted: 2/23/2006 11:12:25 AM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
no i didnt.

are those guys in the army or something?

And the youth of today rears it's stupid head......

calm down. i was joking/trying to ruffle your feathers. i know that they were marines, and i know that they deserve all the credit they got. i respect them highly.

5 Marines and 1 Navy Corpsman (who was awarded teh Navy Cross at Iwo). Brave men, all.

Posted: 2/23/2006 11:36:24 AM EDT

[#4]

Wikipedia has an article and some good links on the battle, here. I had several Uncles in WWII, a few Marines, a few in the Army Air Corps. All but one, the youngest of the brothers, saw battle, if I recall. One was KIA over Germany, one was a POW in Germany, one fought and survived Iwo Jima.

GL

Posted: 2/23/2006 11:49:52 AM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
no i didnt.

are those guys in the army or something?

And the youth of today rears it's stupid head......

calm down. i was joking/trying to ruffle your feathers. i know that they were marines, and i know that they deserve all the credit they got. i respect them highly.

God Bless those soldiers of the Revolutionary War.

Posted: 2/23/2006 11:53:32 AM EDT

[#6]

If you want to read an outstanding book about that incident, and the guys involved in the taking of Iwo Jima, read -- Flags of Our Fathers. I couldn't put it down. One of the best books I've ever read.

Posted: 2/23/2006 12:33:09 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
...and I still get goosebumps when I see it.

(I know the controversy about how it was reenacted and don't particularly care... It's an awesome symbolic photograph)

+1 on the goosebumps

Posted: 2/23/2006 12:38:20 PM EDT

[#8]

My grandfather was a Marine and fougt on Iwo Jima. Purple heart for some shrapnel in his leg. I wish I'd gotten to know him better before he died of a heart attack when I was 11.

Posted: 2/23/2006 12:39:11 PM EDT

[#9]

We owe those boys everything. They literally saved the world.

Thank you United States Marines!

Posted: 2/23/2006 5:08:57 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
Each year my video production company is hired to go to Washington, D.C. with the eighth grade class from Clinton, Wisconsin where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's 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 men raising the American flag at the top of Mount Surabachi 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, "What's your name and where are you guys from?

I told him that my name was Michael Powers and that we were from Clinton, Wisconsin.

"Hey, I'm a Cheesehead, too! Come gather around Cheeseheads, and I will tell you a story."

James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, D.C. to speak at the memorial the following day.
<snip>

Damn Lupey, you were a lucky SOB to have that happen to you. Do you still have access to the tape...I'd love to see that.

Hard to read that, and not feel something well up inside of you.

No Expert

CPL, USMC 86-90

Posted: 2/23/2006 5:28:02 PM EDT

[#11]

thanks for the correction ParaMarine! i knew it was something like that.

Posted: 2/23/2006 5:46:58 PM EDT

[#12]

Great story Lupey thanks for sharing.

Posted: 2/23/2006 5:49:13 PM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:

God bless our Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen!

Amen!

Posted: 2/23/2006 5:58:21 PM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
My grandfather was a Marine and fougt on Iwo Jima. Purple heart for some shrapnel in his leg. I wish I'd gotten to know him better before he died of a heart attack when I was 11.

On 17 Feb 1945, my Grandfather was severely injured when his ship, the USS Pensacola was struck by multiple 11in mortar rounds as she was bombarding Iwo Jima from 5000 yards from the beach. They thought my Granddad was dead but when they went to move him, he let out a sound. His abdomen was sliced wide open and lost most of his right hand which became the "hook" (He shaped it so he could still hold a beer).

As far as Army on Iwo Jima, they didn't come on the island till Iwo Jima was "secured" and the Marines had left, mostly in the form of P-51 units, MP's, and other support elements. The MP's still had to deal with some of the fanatical Japanese who were still leftover, who were hiding in the multiple spiderholes.

Posted: 2/24/2006 9:45:29 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Each year my video production company is hired to go to Washington, D.C. with the eighth grade class from Clinton, Wisconsin where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's 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 men raising the American flag at the top of Mount Surabachi 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, "What's your name and where are you guys from?

I told him that my name was Michael Powers and that we were from Clinton, Wisconsin.

"Hey, I'm a Cheesehead, too! Come gather around Cheeseheads, and I will tell you a story."

James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, D.C. to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good-night to his dad, who had previously passed away, but whose image is part of the statue. 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 from that night:

"My name is James Bradley and I'm 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 didn't turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of twenty-one, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't 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 seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen years old.

(He pointed to the statue)

You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's 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 eighteen years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima. Boys. Not old men.

The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant 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 twenty-four. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, "Let's go kill the enemy" or "Let's die for our country." He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, "You do what I say, and I'll 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, "You're a hero." He told reporters, "How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only twenty-seven 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 twenty-seven 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 thirty-two, 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 couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epson salts. Those cows crapped all night."

Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of nineteen. 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 mother's 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 Kronkite's producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, "No, I'm sorry sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back."

My dad never fished or even went to Canada. Usually he was sitting right there at the table eating his Campbell's soup, but we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press. You see, my dad didn't 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 that's 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 wasn't 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 in his own eyes, but a hero nonetheless.

Thank you for posting that.

Posted: 2/24/2006 9:46:47 AM EDT

[#16]

As soon as I saw the title of the thread I knew what it was

Posted: 2/24/2006 2:22:40 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
I am thankfull that "Flags of our Fathers" was written, I have this photo prominantly displayed because I feel that this is not just the flag of our fathers, but of ours also (even with 2 new stars). I was disapointed to detect a note of cultural liberalism in from the outhor...another son (as are many of us) who are tainted by the disease that threatens to bring down our country...

You might be interested to know that Clint Eastwood is producing a movie based on "Flags of our Fathers".

(Actually, he plans on making two movies about Iwo Jima; the one based from "Flags", and the other one from the Japanese perspective of the battle).