A Tale of Six Boys.

This is a letter I just received from a friend of ours whose son went to Iraq in the beginning of 2006. Her name is Marilyn Fry. Please read the article and reflect upon the need to continue to fight for our freedom!

Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 11:02 AM
Subject: Fw: Six Boys

"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". 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 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 17, 18, and 19
years old.(He pointed to the statue) "You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from NewHampshire. 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 our 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. 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 mileaway.

"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 ahero
nonetheless.

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.

REMINDER:
Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day. Great story - worth your time.

Please pass it along.