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"How can I feel like a hero when only 5 men in my platoon of 45 men survived. Only 27 men in my company of 250 men escaped
death or injury." Ira H. Hayes
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| Ira Hayes was an Iwo Jima hero though not a recipient of the Medal Of Honor. |
Biography
Born -January 12, 1923 Sacaton, Arizona
Died - January 24, 1955 Bapchule, Arizona
Buried
in Arlington National Cemetery
Pima Tribe
There are probably no more tragic
stories than that of Ira Hayes. Born on the Pima Indian Reservation in Sacaton, Arizona, Ira was the son of a poor farming
family. His people had struggled for years to make a living in the arid conditions of the Reservation and had little success
beyond survival. At one time the Pima were successful farmers but that was before the US Government cut off their water supply
and created a situation where they could no longer grow enough crops to eat.
Until the beginning of World War II, his
life was probably unnoticed by anyone more than a few miles from his birthplace. When America called its men to arms Ira answered
this call and joined the US Marine Corps for several reasons: He would be able to leave the Reservation, eat regularly and
send money home to his family to help them have a better life. His Tribal Chief told him to be an Honorable Warrior and to
bring honor upon his people. Ira never failed to do this. He was a dedicated Marine who was admired by his peers who fought
alongside him in three major battles in the Pacific.
February 23, 1945, at age 23, an event occurred that would forever
place Ira Hayes in this nation's history books and irrevocably change his life. On a hilltop above a Pacific island, a small
group of Marines struggled to raise the American flag to claim victory over the Japanese occupancy. As the flag was being
raised, Ira rushed to help his comrades just as the photographer snapped what was to become one of the most famous pictures
in history. That picture was the "Flag Raising At Iwo Jima" and it is Ira's hands that are outstretched to give the final
thrust that planted this symbol of American victory. Six men were caught in that photograph, three of them died shortly afterwards.
The battle of Iwo Jima was a costly one for our troops. Only 5 of Ira's platoon of 45 survived and of his company of 250,
only 27 escaped death or injury.
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| Click on the picture to see the Ira H. Hayes Memorial High School website. |
Note: Ira H. Hayes was one of the first
public figures to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. During Ira’s time, it was referred to “Shell
Shock” or “Survivor’s Guilt” and there was little or no treatment. Today, about
30% of war veterans experience PTSD and receive various treatment methods. If you or someone you know exhibits PTSD
characteristics please seek professional help. This note is published by the Ira H. Hayes Memorial High School that
opened in 2000 and is the only high school on the Gila River Indian Reservation. This website can be seen at http://www.irahhayes.org.
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| The photograph that changed Ira's life. |
Ira Hayes was stunned when he was told that
President Truman wanted him and the other survivors to return to the United State to join the 7th Bond Tour to help raise
money for the war efforts. He never considered himself a hero and often said the real heroes were "my good buddies" who died
during the battles. What was supposed to be an easy tour of duty turned into the worst ordeal of Ira's military life. He never
understood why he was called an American hero and struggled with the adulation that was heaped on him everywhere he went.
Over and over he made statements that he was not a hero but reminded everyone of the brave men who had died and deserved this
honor.
By the time Ira was released from duty he was hopelessly addicted to alcohol. The Bond Tour had been a battle
that had taken more of a toll on him than any he fought in the Pacific. It seemed that this nation found one way to honor
its heroes: Buy them a drink! Ira went back to the Reservation to escape the unwanted attention he'd be forced to bear but
people did not stop writing and coming to see "the Indian who raised the flag." Ira's only escape from the conflict he felt
over being viewed as a hero was the bottle. Over and over he made statements like; "I was sick. I guess I was about to crack
up thinking about all my good buddies. They were better men than me and they're not coming back. Much less back to the White
House, like me." After a ceremony where he was praised by President Eisenhower once again for being a hero, a reporter asked
Ira, "How do you like the pomp & circumstances?" Ira just hung his head and said, "I don't."
For the next few years
Ira Hayes was a drifter, drinker and loner. He never married, was often arrested for public drunkenness and was filled with
despair over the plight of his people. He had been wined and dined by the rich and powerful, had been immortalized in American
history but he was still no more than an Indian on a dried up Reservation now that he'd come home. There was still no water,
no crops and no hope for a better life for the Pima or him. All this time he still struggled with his own inability to reconcile
himself as being worthy of the fame he'd received for simply being one of the lucky ones who lived through such a horrible
war. Ira never saw his military service as any more than just being an "Honorable Warrior."
In 1954, Ira Hayes attended
the dedication ceremony in Washington, D. C. for the Iwo Jima Memorial. This monument was a bronze cast replica of the now
famous photograph of the flag raising, created by Felix DeWeldon. Within 10 weeks of this celebration Ira Hamilton Hayes would
be dead at age 33. After another night of drinking and still lamenting over his fallen "buddies", Ira fell drunk in an irrigation
ditch and froze to death, alone and forgotten by a country that had called him a hero. The ditch where he died was the single
source of water that was provided for his people by the same government he'd proudly served.
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| The Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington, D.C. |
In a speech delivered on November 10, 1993
by General Carl Mundy, USMC Commandant, United States Marine Corps, commemoration of Marine Corps 218th Birthday at Iwo Jima
Memorial, these words were spoken about Ira Hayes:
"One of the pairs of hands that you see outstretched to raise our
national flag on the battle-scarred crest of Mount Suribachi so many years ago, are those of a Native American ... Ira Hayes
... a
Marine not of the ethnic majority of our population.
Were Ira Hayes here today ... I would tell him that although
my words on another occasion have given the impression that I believe some Marines ... because of their color ... are not
as capable as other Marines ... that those were not the thoughts of my mind ... and that they are not the thoughts of my heart.
I
would tell Ira Hayes that our Corps is what we are because we are of the people of America ... the people of the broad, strong,
ethnic fabric that is our nation. And last, I would tell him that in the future, that fabric will broaden and strengthen in
every category to make our Corps even stronger ... even of greater utility to our nation. That's a commitment of this commandant
...
And that's a personal commitment of this Marine."
I'd like to think that somewhere Ira heard these words and
felt that his life had accomplished something more than he realized. I'd also like to think that there are others who might
hear them and write them on their hearts. From all of us who still remember what you did, Thank you, Ira. You were indeed
an "Honorable Warrior."
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| The Iwo Jima flag raisers. |
There are six Flag Raisers on the photo.
Four in the front line and two in back.
The front four are (left to right) Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, John Bradley and
Harlon Block. The back two are Michael Strank (behind Sousley) and Rene Gagnon (behind Bradley). Strank, Block and Sousley
would die shortly afterwards. Bradley, Hayes and Gagnon became national heroes within weeks.
The following song is an often debated story
of Ira's life. Some found it an insult; others saw it as a hymn; I see it as truth set to music. It is not my wish to insult
anyone by posting it here on a page dedicated to a man I hold in esteem. It's only done to present another view of what his
life stood for and how his memory was immortalized in song.
Ballad
of Ira Hayes
written
by
Peter LaFarge
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor
the Marine that went to war
Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should
remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land
Down
the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Till the white man stole the water rights
And
the sparklin' water stopped
Now Ira's folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira
volunteered
And forgot the white man's greed
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not
the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill,
Two hundred
and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived
To walk back down again
And when the fight was over
And when Old
Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He
won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Ira returned a hero
Celebrated
through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored;
Everybody shook his hand
But he was just a Pima Indian
No
water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
And when did the Indians dance
CHORUS:
Call
him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Then
Ira started drinkin' hard;
Jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it
like you'd throw a
dog a bone!
He died drunk one mornin'
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was
a grave for Ira Hayes
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin'
Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his
ghost is lyin' thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died
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| Ira Hayes during the 7th Bond Tour sometime around 1946. |
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| The last known picture of Ira Hayes taken in 1954, just 10 weeks before his death. |
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| Ira Hayes tombstone in Arlington National Cemetery. |
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