rockogre

My brother sent me this today because he knows that I am proud to be a veteran and support our folks in the services no matter where they are. Just thought some of you might enjoy it also. I'm not sure who actually wrote it.

A Tale of Six Boys

Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade
class
from Clinton, WI. 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 soldiers
raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill 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, "Where are you guys from?"

I told him that we were from Wisconsin "Hey, I'm a cheese head, too!
Come
gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story."

(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the
memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to
his dad, who has since passed away. 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 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 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I
don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are people 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 17, 18, and 19 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 18 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 24. When Mike would
motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some
Japanese' 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 27 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 27 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 32 . 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 Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all
night. Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima
at
the age of 19. 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 there right
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 on 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, 7,000 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 for the reasons most people would believe, but a hero
nonetheless.


We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for us
to
live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice. Let us never forget from
the
Revolutionary War to the current War on Terrorism and all the wars
in-between that sacrifice was made for our freedom.

Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray
for
those still in murderous unrest around the world. STOP and thank God for
being alive and being free at someone else's sacrifice.

God Bless You and God Bless America.

REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great
day.

__________________
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you,
Jesus Christ and the American G. I.
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom