55th Anniversary Remarks at the Marine Corps Memorial Arlington,
VA 20 February 2000
Introduction by Iwo Jima veteran Major General Fred Haynes,
U.S. Marine Corps (Retired).
General Haynes: "John Bradley is the second man from the
right, the Pharmacist Mate, the only Navy man in this magnificent
statue which represents everything that all of us here, our
children, our grandchildren stand for. We have with us today
his fourth child, third son, James Bradley, who will talk to
us a little about what this represents. I present James Bradley."
(Bradley rises from his seat and strides across the wet
grass to the podium. Silently he turns away to gaze at his father's
enormous bronze likeness. He turns back to the audience and
begins.)
“So there's my dad in the tallest bronze monument in the
world, but that's about all we knew growing up. He wouldn't
talk about Iwo Jima; he would always change the subject. After
he died, I phoned my mother and asked her to tell me everything
that dad ever told her about Iwo Jima. She said, 'That won't
take long, because he only talked about it once - on our first
date. For seven or eight disinterested minutes and then never
again in a 47 year marriage did he say the words, Iwo Jima.”
“After his funeral, we were in for some surprises. My brothers
and my mother were searching for his will in his office. They
opened a closet door. In that closet were two large brown boxes.
We were surprised that in those boxes he had secretly saved
memories of 50 years of being a flagraiser.”
“Then the next day we were in for another surprise. My father's
Captain on Iwo Jima phoned my mother and asked her if she knew
that my father had been awarded the Navy Cross for valor two
days before the flag raising. She said no. My father had kept
his heroism a secret from his wife, from his family, and his
community for half a century.”
“I burned with curiosity and went on a quest. I phoned mayor's
offices and sheriff's departments all across the country, looking
for the relatives of these six guys. I interviewed hundreds
of you Iwo Jima veterans and I learned a lot.”
“I learned how young you were. My dad is not the guy putting
the pole in the ground; he's the next guy up. But behind him,
obscured by him, on the other side, is Rene Gagnon. Rene Gagnon,
at that moment, had a photo of his girlfriend in his helmet.
He needed the protection because he was scared. He was 17 years
old.”
“Ira Hayes, the last man on the statue whose hands cannot
reach the pole. Proud of being with you Marines, he wrote home
from the boat taking him to Iwo Jima: 'These boys I'm with are
all good men. I would not take 1000 dollars to be separated
from them.’”
“I learned how eager you boys were to serve. Harlon Block,
at the base of that pole, enlisted in the United States Marine
Corps with all of the senior members of his high school football
team.
“I learned how determined you were on Iwo Jima. My dad wrote
a letter home three days after the flag raising. He wrote, 'I
didn't know I could go without food, without water, or sleep
for three days, but now I know it can be done.’”
“I learned about leaders. Ira Hayes is the last guy up there.
The next guy you're looking at is Franklin Sousley. Behind Franklin,
obscured by Franklin, is my hero - Mike Strank. Where is Mike's
right hand? Mike's right hand is not on the pole. Mike is behind
his boys. He's the Sergeant. He's the Marine leader and his
right hand is gripping the right arm of Franklin Sousley, a
young boy. Mike is helping Franklin lift a heavy pole; a Marine
leader caring for his boys. Three weeks before Iwo Jima, his
Captain said that he wanted to promote Mike Strank. Mike turned
it down on the spot saying, 'I promised my boys I'd be there
with them.’”
“And I learned about the heartbreak that you went through.
Franklin Sousley, the second figure in. Franklin was fatherless
at the age of nine. He was dead on Iwo Jima at the age of nineteen.
His aunt told me that when the telegram arrived at the General
Store in Hilltop, Kentucky a young, barefoot boy ran that telegram
up to his mother's farm. The story is that the neighbors could
hear his mother scream all night and into the morning. The neighbors
lived a quarter of a mile away.”
“I learned about the challenges that you faced. You did
the impossible. You fought an underground, unseen enemy. I learned
that the Air Force bombed Iwo Jima more than any spot in the
Pacific and only rearranged the sand. I learned that the Navy
lobbed shells the size of Volkswagens - with the power to re-sculpture
Mount Suribachi - and didn't kill anybody.”
“It took you guys to win a battle that historians describe
as ‘American flesh against Japanese concrete.’”
“I have been to Iwo Jima. It's five miles long. If you're
in a car going 60 miles an hour, it takes you 5 minutes to conquer
it. It took you - slogging, fighting, dying - 36 days.”
“I learned that my father's company, named "Easy" Company,
had 84 percent casualties. Sixteen percent of my dad's buddies
made it off unharmed.”
“Bob Schmidt told me that when they buried the dead on Saipan,
they buried by individual grave. When they buried on Iwo Jima
they buried by row - rows of a hundred boys. He told me that
they needed surveyors to mark the lines. Corpsman Hoopes instructed
me, ‘You tell your readers that my uniform was caked with blood
and it cracked. And it was not my blood.’
“I learned about the buddyhood and bravery that won the
battle of Iwo Jima. Jack Lucas, here in the front row, jumped
on the beach without a rifle. And the reason he didn't have
a rifle is because he wasn't supposed to be there. He stowed
away to go fight the battle of Iwo Jima. And a couple days later
jumped on two grenades to save his buddies.”
“Nurse Norma Crotty is in the audience and I interviewed
her. She was an ‘Angel in the Air,’ flying down to evacuate
the grievously wounded. She evacuated Navy personnel, Army personnel
- all over the Pacific. She was a nurse for 50 years caring
to civilians and military.
“I asked, ‘Nurse Norma, was there anything different about
those Iwo Jima Marines?’ And she said, ‘Yes, I'll never forget
them. It was their spirit. I evacuated boys from other battles
that were beaten, but those Marines had Esprit de Corps. Those
boys were burned. They were bruised. But I never saw a Marine
who was beaten.’
“I think it's time we Americans put this battle into
perspective. This is not just a big battle of the Pacific, or
an important battle of World War II. This is unique. This is
above and beyond. This is ‘America's Battle.’
“America's Battle, what else can you call a battle that
in one day had more casualties than two and a half months at
Guadalcanal? Normandy was terrible, but at the end of one day,
at the end of 24 hours, you and I could have had a tea party
on the beaches of Normandy. It was completely safe. Boys died
on the beaches of Iwo Jima - on the beaches - for two weeks.”
“America's Battle. What else can you call the only battle
that when Franklin Delano Roosevelt saw the casualties he gasped,
and he cried?”
“TIME Magazine, March 5th, 1945, wrote, ‘no battle of World
War II - not even Normandy - was watched with as much interest
as the battle of Iwo Jima.’
“America's Battle . . . (Bradley gazes at the Iwo Jima veterans
in the audience and beckons to them . . .)
“Hey guys listen up! George Washington. Thomas Edison. Hank
Aaron. You Marines and Corpsmen who won America's Battle.”
“I would like to salute you guys, but I know how difficult
that is because you are as humble as you are brave. Jessie Boatright
said to me, ‘You know Bradley, you think we did something special
out there in the Pacific, but we were just ordinary guys. Ordinary
guys just doing our duty.’
“Yes, well, I'm more in synch with the words of Tex Stanton.
I often call Tex Stanton when I need advice with my writing.
And he always picks up on the first ring. He doesn't leave his
chair very often. Because Mr. Stanton has no legs. He left those
on Iwo Jima 55 years ago.”
“Mr. Stanton said to me, 'You know Bradley, heroism on that
island was a funny thing. You had to be observed, and you had
to be written up, and if you got a medal your citation said
that you did something above and beyond.”
“’Well Bradley,’ he said, ‘I saw a lot of heroes on Iwo
Jima and the way I figure it, if you got through one day on
that island you were doing something above and beyond
just to survive.’
“I would like to salute you guys. You guys who won America's
Battle. You ordinary guys. You heroes of Iwo Jima.”
[After a silent pause Bradley turns to gaze at the six bronze
figures for a moment and then walks across the wet grass to
his seat.]
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