13 Hands

[Paul]

>>>TALE 0F SIX BOYS  & 13 HANDS
>>>
>>>Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with  the eight 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  headedtowards the memorial. I noticed a sol itary 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 a ll 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 t o 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 - and it was so hard that the ones who did make it home, never even  would talk to their families about it.
>>>
      (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. It was just  boys who won the battle of Iwo Jima. Boys. Not old men.
>>>
>>>"The next guy here, the third guy in  this tableau, was Sargeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all  the se 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 was one who 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 islandwith 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 H ayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes carried the pain home with him and eventually 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  ; m orning. Those 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'msorry, 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, like Ira Hayes, 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, without any  medication or help with the 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, s o 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 forus 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 an d al so 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.
>>>       One thing I learned while on tour with  my 8th grade students in DC that is not mentioned here is that if you look at  the statue very
>>>closely and count the number of "hands" raising the flag, there  are 13. When the man who made the statue was asked why there were 13, he simply  said the 13th hand was the hand of God.

[PigPen]

That's some powerful stuff.

[wpruitt]

Absolutely awesome

[Dtopford]

awsome read thank you

[MR. CLEAN]

Thats some powerful stuff.  Its also a overlooked fact that that scene was the Second flag raising on Iwo Jima.  The first, it was photographed and made the cover of the LeatherNecks Magazine. 

To all the Hero's, and those who made it back,
For those who paid for our freedom, The Tole the Highest Price of all.
For the True Patriots,
Raise the Flag High, and allow it to Fly in the Breeze, as the souls that died for the Red White, that pay for our right to be Free.

God Bless our soldiers & Emergency Personal. 

[KALBO]

Incredible read, thanks much for posting it Paul.

[TXFergie]

I have read that before awhile back and it gets me each time I read it. As a veteran myself, thank you to all of those who have served, are serving, and who may be on their way to serve. We owe them our support and prayers each day.

[wpruitt]

That piece, Paul, is just about capable of getting rid of dry eyes.  Moves me every time I read it.

Recently learned that a young man from our church is still at Pearl Harbor - on board the Arizona.  I remember his sister used to always get emotional around December 7 - but she always did a brief bit a church around that date to insure he would not be forgotten.

[CDN Meathead]

WOW.  It's like I keep telling my troops whenever they start to question thier calling and I forget where I originally heard it but..... Freedom is never FREE, there is always a price to be paid.
Bravo Zulu and that must have been quite and honour.

[tomgallagher]

I've stood over the Arizona at the memorial at Pearl Harhor and watched as bubbles still kept coming up from her after all these years. Very upsetting, very upsetting. God bless them all.