The Boys of Iwo Jima by Michael Powers

 As many of our readers know, Veteran Veritas attempts to promote all activity, civic and literary, that is related to Veterans affairs.  I strive to remain in the realm of advocacy and leave the editorial to the opinion mavens. The exceptions being when it overlaps with issues that effect the care and treatment of our nations veterans.
This book is of immense literary value and I suggest picking up a copy. It is important that our families know the stories from the hearts and minds of those who served and the memories of their immediate kin.

The Boys of Iwo Jima
(From the book: Heart Touchers “Life-Changing Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter”)

by Michael T. Powers
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 Cronkite’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.
Michael T. Powers
HeartTouchers@aol.com

Copyright © 2000 by Michael T. Powers

Write Michael and let him know your thoughts on this story!

Michael T. Powers, the founder of HeartTouchers.com and Heart4Teens.com, is the youth minister at Faith Community Church in Janesville, Wisconsin. He is happily married to his high school sweetheart Kristi and proud father of three young rambunctious boys.

He is also an author with stories in 29 inspirational books including many in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and his own entitled: Heart Touchers “Life-Changing Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter.” To preview his book or to join the thousands of world wide readers on his inspirational e-mail list, visit: http://www.hearttouchers.com

A Poem For Memorial Day

My friend Rob Jackson, who is the Commandant for the Department of California Marine Corps League sent me this poem. It was written by the Headmaster of  the Military Academy that Rob attended. It really brought home some memories.  During the Christmas season of 1975, I was house sitting for Jerome and Sue King when I was overwhelmed with grief after reading the letters I wrote home from Vietnam.  I sat by the fireplace with a bottle of Harvey’s Bristol Creme Sherry,  and one by one tossed the letters  into the fireplace with some confabulated belief that would incinerate the memories.  Not true. And  I so  lament doing that as it took years to recapture and release some of those sagas.

Forty-five years later, I have regained some of that youthful spirit, and the lost innocence. This poem by a WWII Veteran shows us that my experience is somewhat universal. Somehow that makes it more real as the healing is also universal.

 

 

 

A Marine Returns

 

Yes, he had lasted and was home again:

Wandering through the house, he touched each chair,

looking as if he wished he might regain

what it had meant, in memory, standing there.

 

The grin was much the same, though manner changed:

Mountains of death and beaches drowned in blood,

buddies who fell, all this and more had ranged

through endless years of bombs and battle-mud.

 

At last he paused beside his little store

of yesterday: old letters, pictures, tied

in boyish bundles, ripping each before

he tossed it in the basket by his side.

 

And thus I watched him tearing up his youth,

fumbling for something lost – perhaps the truth.

 

–Colonel Cullen Jones, writing about his son Gordon,

survivor of the third wave landing on Iwo Jima

 

 

“It is difficult / To get the news from poems /  Yet men die miserably every day/  for lack /  of what is found there.”

Is War Dead In America?

When a soldier goes to war, the family goes to war. There was a time when soldiers went to war, the community went to war. Virtually every township and neighborhood had a family member in uniform. Sacrifices, both personal and corporate were distributed throughout the community. Now, it would take a modern day Diogenes to find an honest sacrifice.

In 21st century wars of assimilation (most undeclared), there is a dwindling level of support and sacrifice for the actual war effort. Ironically, American morale for supporting the troops is at an all-time high, but we are in a total state of disconnect from the conduct of war and its combatants. T.S. Elliot wondered, “How much reality can humankind handle?” Are we simply in overload mode?

The April, 1966 cover of Time Magazine featured the “God Is Dead Movement.” The phrase was immediately misunderstood, losing much of its intention to inform us that we had lost the symbolic language about God, and thereby lost the experience of God in our daily existence. Is it possible that war is dead in America?

“Only the dead know the end of war,” said the philosopher Plato, yet, how will one know the memories of war and its dead if not through the living who have borne the battle?

Without a syntax for war, its meaning dies before the soldier.

Author Mark Thompson, writing for Time magazine on November 10, 2011, suggests our armed forces and civil society are drifting apart. His characterization of “an army apart” is accurate and confirmed by active duty troops. We now have a highly-trained population of professional military volunteers who continuously at war for nearly 20 years, yet that irony surfaces again as they represent only a 0.5% slice of the population. This is the lowest percentage of Americans serving in the Armed Forces since before World War I.

Our voluntary combatants are primarily poor kids and patriots from the lower socioeconomic strata. The upper crust of American society is mostly AWOL from war, yet they are the ones making decisions about war. In the 1970’s, 77% of our lawmakers were veterans. That percentage has now slipped to 22%.  War and the memory of war is pretty much dead in the personal lives of those on Capitol Hill.

On this Memorial Day, we reverently march on with profound respect and honor for all Americans who have died in battle from the Boston Massacre to the streets of Kabul. Since its inception as Decoration Day after the American Civil War when freed slaves sang songs of praise for their liberation by Union soldiers, we continue this most sacred of federal holidays. Yet, it may be time to refresh our memories of war itself, and the consequent sacrifices that are charged to a citizenry adhering to the Constitutional dictum, “to provide for the common defense” – the operative word being, “common.”

The day-to-day, hour-to-hour reality of providing for the common defense begs to be memorialized on this day so as to not trivialize the sacrifices of those who died for the common good.

On Memorial Day, the American flag is swiftly run up to the top of its staff, and then quietly, reverently lowered to half mast in recognition of the millions who gave their all for this land of the free and home of the brave. In some traditions, that flag remains at half mast until noon, when the memory of the dead is raised with the flag by the survivors resolved to never allow those sacrifices in defending our Constitution to be in vain.

In the week after Memorial Day, find a soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine, and ask them to tell you their saga of war and of those they lost. You will then experience the meaning of Memorial Day.

Michael Patrick Brewer, Combat Veteran/ U.S. Marine Corps

Cancer In The Water

Change.org
The Marine Corps knew there were toxic chemicals in the drinking water at a U.S. base, but they didn’t tell military families — and they won’t pay for medical treatments either. Tell the Veterans Administration to pay for medical treatments for Marine veterans and their families who were exposed to toxic chemicals in the water at Camp Lejeune.
Sign Jerry’s Petition

Michael –

Retired Marine Sergeant Jerry Ensminger thought the water that came out of his taps at the Camp Lejeune military base in North Carolina was safe. It’s the water he bathed his daughter Janey in and the water he gave her to drink. But it was also the water that killed her.

Jerry’s daughter Janey was diagnosed with childhood leukemia when she was 6 years old, and died three years later in 1987.

In the following years, Jerry asked himself again and again why Janey got sick when they had no family history of cancer. Then, he learned what the Marine Corps had known for decades: the water at Camp Lejeune was contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals, poisoning the water and the people there. But instead of telling people, the Marines covered it up.

Today, the government refuses to pay for medical treatments for veterans and their family members who were poisoned. So Jerry started a petition on Change.org to get other veterans’ families the health care they need to fight the effects of Camp Lejeune’s water.

Click here to sign Jerry’s petition asking the Veterans Administration and Congress to pay for medical treatments for veterans and their families who worked and lived at Camp Lejeune.

As many as 200,000 people who worked and lived at Camp Lejeune between 1957 and 1987 have gotten sick and even died from leukemia, birth defects and various cancers tied to the poisoned water.

But Veterans Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki said just last month that he thinks providing health care to veterans of Camp Lejeune would be “premature.” But for Jerry, taking responsibility for what happened to the water and families at Camp Lejeune wouldn’t be premature — it’s more than a decade overdue.

Jerry’s struggled with the loss of his daughter for decades, and has since fought to make sure the Marines take care of those who were exposed to the chemicals at Camp Lejeune and are still alive. He started his petition on Change.org in the hope that it will focus attention on this issue while there’s still time left for other veterans and their families.

Click here to sign Jerry’s petition calling on the V.A. and Congress to pay for medical treatments for veterans of Camp Lejeune and their families, where thousands of people were poisoned by polluted water.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Corinne and the Change.org team

This email was sent by Change.org to balawales@aol.com   |   Start a petition
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A Moment Of Silence And Remembrance

Only the dead know the end of War”Plato

 

 

Would it not be good for the soul of America if we went silent for the whole month  of June?

 

 

Ergo, no campaigning! The soldiers can’t do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.iava.org/

Mike,http://iava.org/redirect?redirect=http://bit.ly/KJlVFQ  &org=403&lvl=100&ite=3530&lea=72954&ctr=0&par=1&org=403&lvl=100&ite=3530&lea=72954&ctr=0&par=1This Memorial Day, go silent for the fallen.On Monday, IAVA will head to hallowed ground. We’ll unite from Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery to The Presidio overlooking the Pacific to remember all 6,442 Americans who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’ll rededicate ourselves to support the families they have left behind. And we’ll pause in silence to honor their last full measure of devotion for our country.Will you go silent for them? Sign the pledge to join IAVA in a national moment of silence at 12:01pm this Memorial Day.Memorial Day should be a powerful, unified day of remembrance. In our community, our fallen brothers and sisters stand apart for their bravery and sacrifice. They were our battle buddies, our friends and our family—and we will carry their loss for a lifetime.Pledge to go silent in their memory this Memorial Day. Text “SILENT” to 69866for a reminder before the moment of silence, and then spread the word to your friends on Twitter and Facebook.There is power in silence. No matter where you are this Memorial Day gather your friends and family to pause and reflect in honor of all Americans who have given their lives in defense of our country.

Thank you for standing with us.

Paul

Paul Rieckhoff
Founder and Executive Director
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

PS – Want to join us on the ground this Memorial Day? Bring your friends and family out for local ceremonies from Washington, D.C. to Chicago to San Francisco. Find one near you.

http://www.iava.org/donate*http://iava.org/contact-us*http://iava.org/spread-word*http://iava.org/veteranjoin
CONNECT WITH IAVA:http://www.facebook.com/IAVA.orghttp://twitter.com/iava

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Ten Names Added To Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund



Hello Friend,Ten new names, ten brothers in arms, ten legacies of courage.

On Sunday, ten new names were added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, including CPL Frank A. Neary of the United States Marine Corps.

With these additions, 58,282 names are now etched in granite on The Wall.

During an emotional ceremony on a perfect day in Washington, DC, CPL Neary’s daughter, Jessica DiNapoli, shared her memories of a man who came home from Vietnam, raised a family, and never forgot the sacrifices of his fellow service men and women.

Watch Jessica talk about her father’s life, then honor the ten new additions to The Wall by sharing the video today:

In 1967, CPL Neary was shot in the leg while on patrol in Vietnam. He was just 18. Upon returning home, like too many who have seen the theater of war, he struggled to cope with his memories.

As Jessica explained, however, he was able to use the memories of his fallen brothers for good:

The opportunity to see and raise a family was an opportunity to educate that family about respecting and honoring our veterans. The opportunity to work to support his family was an opportunity to hire and train dozens of returning veterans from battles all around the globe. The opportunity to volunteer time and effort was an opportunity to help construct the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Holmdel, NJ.

On Sunday, fifty of CPL Neary’s family members gathered at The Wall to honor his life and the legacies of nine other fallen service members. We’re proud to ensure their stories will live on for generations through our plans for the Education Center at The Wall.

Watch Jessica’s stirring tribute to her father, CPL Frank A. Neary, one of ten names added to The Wall on Sunday.

www.vvmf.org/ten-new-names

Sincerely,

Jan C. Scruggs
Founder and President

P.S. Today we also honor and remember the nine names added to The Wall in addition to CPL Neary. They are:

PFC Johnny Owen Brooks, U.S. Army, Stockton, CA
PFC Larry Morgan Kelly, U.S. Army, Akron, OH
SP4 David Lawrence Deckard, U.S. Army, Louisville, KY
ATC Joseph William Aubin, U.S. Navy, Bridgeport, CT
ATR3 Richard Carl Hunt, U.S. Navy, Guys Mills, PA
LT Walter Allan Linzy, U.S. Navy, Nashville, AR
ATR3 Richard Dwaine Stocker, U.S. Navy, Jacksonville, AR
LTJG David McLean Desilets, U.S. Navy, Palm Desert, CA
AN Albert Kalahana Kuewa, U.S. Navy, Honolulu, HI

JOIN US  Facebook Twitter Blog

Established in 1979, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and promoting healing and educating about the impact of the Vietnam War. Authorized by Congress, its most recent initiative is building The Education Center at The Wall, an underground facility near the Memorial that is designed to add faces to all the names on The Wall and tell their stories to future generations. Other Memorial Fund initiatives include educational programs for students and teachers, and a traveling Wall replica.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | 2600 Virginia Avenue, NW Suite 104 | Washington, D.C. 20037

Ten New Names Added To Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund



Hello Friend,

Ten new names, ten brothers in arms, ten legacies of courage.

On Sunday, ten new names were added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, including CPL Frank A. Neary of the United States Marine Corps.

With these additions, 58,282 names are now etched in granite on The Wall.

During an emotional ceremony on a perfect day in Washington, DC, CPL Neary’s daughter, Jessica DiNapoli, shared her memories of a man who came home from Vietnam, raised a family, and never forgot the sacrifices of his fellow service men and women.

Watch Jessica talk about her father’s life, then honor the ten new additions to The Wall by sharing the video today:

In 1967, CPL Neary was shot in the leg while on patrol in Vietnam. He was just 18. Upon returning home, like too many who have seen the theater of war, he struggled to cope with his memories.

As Jessica explained, however, he was able to use the memories of his fallen brothers for good:

The opportunity to see and raise a family was an opportunity to educate that family about respecting and honoring our veterans. The opportunity to work to support his family was an opportunity to hire and train dozens of returning veterans from battles all around the globe. The opportunity to volunteer time and effort was an opportunity to help construct the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Holmdel, NJ.

On Sunday, fifty of CPL Neary’s family members gathered at The Wall to honor his life and the legacies of nine other fallen service members. We’re proud to ensure their stories will live on for generations through our plans for the Education Center at The Wall.

Watch Jessica’s stirring tribute to her father, CPL Frank A. Neary, one of ten names added to The Wall on Sunday.

www.vvmf.org/ten-new-names

Sincerely,

Jan C. Scruggs
Founder and President

P.S. Today we also honor and remember the nine names added to The Wall in addition to CPL Neary. They are:

PFC Johnny Owen Brooks, U.S. Army, Stockton, CA
PFC Larry Morgan Kelly, U.S. Army, Akron, OH
SP4 David Lawrence Deckard, U.S. Army, Louisville, KY
ATC Joseph William Aubin, U.S. Navy, Bridgeport, CT
ATR3 Richard Carl Hunt, U.S. Navy, Guys Mills, PA
LT Walter Allan Linzy, U.S. Navy, Nashville, AR
ATR3 Richard Dwaine Stocker, U.S. Navy, Jacksonville, AR
LTJG David McLean Desilets, U.S. Navy, Palm Desert, CA
AN Albert Kalahana Kuewa, U.S. Navy, Honolulu, HI

JOIN US  Facebook Twitter Blog

Established in 1979, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and promoting healing and educating about the impact of the Vietnam War. Authorized by Congress, its most recent initiative is building The Education Center at The Wall, an underground facility near the Memorial that is designed to add faces to all the names on The Wall and tell their stories to future generations. Other Memorial Fund initiatives include educational programs for students and teachers, and a traveling Wall replica.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | 2600 Virginia Avenue, NW Suite 104 | Washington, D.C. 20037

Tucson Area Heroes To Hometown Event

AZ Heroes to Hometowns inspires community pride and establishes a support network for Service Members and their Families. Mission is assisting with the needs of injured militaryservice members and their families with financial, spiritual, emotional, and social support as they return to their communities. AZ Heroes to

Hometowns are designed to welcome home Service Members who are severely injured.

 

 

 

Tuesday May 22nd, 2012 from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm

Lunch Provided

162nd Fighter Wing Air National Guard

1500 E Valencia, Tucson AZ 85706

Please attend and help develop a strong local community of support,

collaboration andmaximize resources in support of those that

have given so muchalready.

Learn what you can do to assist Service Members in your area.

Guest Speaker Judge Michael Pollard – Tucson Veteran Treatment Courts

 

Please RSVP. Due to coordinating efforts and certain limitations we request no more than 2 people from your organization. Each organization will be introduced and have 30 seconds to tell everyone about your programs. When you RSVP, please write ashort paragraph describing your organization and programs to be added to a resource guide for your area. Please include names, phone number, e-mail address, web site, and brief description of your program.

Contact Kathy Pearce, Advocate for Wounded Warriors and Heroes to Hometowns, please RSVP at www.AZHeroestoHometowns.org

kathypearce1@cox.net or 480.330.1632

Networking from 10:30 to 11:00 and 2:30 to 3:00 Please indicate if a table is needed for networking