Ira Hayes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ira Hamilton Hayes | |
|---|---|
| January 12, 1923 - January 24, 1955 | |
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| Nickname | Chief Falling Cloud |
| Place of birth | Gila River Indian Reservation |
| Place of death | Gila River Indian Reservation |
| Allegiance | USMC |
| Years of service | 1942-1945 |
| Rank | Corporal |
| Unit | 3rd Parachute Battalion 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines 1st Headquarters Battalion, HQMC |
| Battles/wars | Vella Lavella and Bougainville, Battle of Iwo Jima |
Ira Hamilton Hayes (January 12, 1923 – January 24, 1955) was a full blood Akimel O’odham, or Pima Indian, and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community. A survivor of World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima, Hayes was trained as a Paramarine in the United States Marine Corps (USMC), and became one of five Marines, along with a US Navy corpsman, immortalized in the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima.[1] [2]
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[edit] Life
The son of Joeb E. and Nancy W. Hayes, Ira Hayes was born on the Gila River Indian Reservation in Sacaton, Arizona. Hayes left school in 1942 to enlist in the Marines. Trained as a paratrooper, he was nicknamed Chief Falling Cloud.
[edit] The Flag on Iwo Jima
After boot camp, Hayes was sent to the Pacific. He first saw combat on Bougainville. He returned home briefly on leave, after which his family said years afterward he was a changed man, more serious. He then participated in the battle for the island of Iwo Jima, beginning on February 19, 1945, and was among the group of Marines that took Mount Suribachi four days later, on February 23, 1945. The raising of the second American flag on the mountain by five Marines and a Navy Corpsman was immortalized by photographer Joe Rosenthal and became an icon of the war. Overnight, Hayes (who appears on the far left of the photograph) became a national hero, along with the two other survivors of the famous photograph, Rene Gagnon and John Bradley. Hayes's story drew particular attention because he was Native American.
Hayes was promoted to the rank of corporal before being discharged from the Marine Corps. His decorations and medals include the Commendation Ribbon with "V" combat device, Presidential Unit Citation with one star (for Iwo Jima), Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with four stars (for Vella Lavella, Bougainville, Consolidation of the Northern Solomons, and Iwo Jima), American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.
[edit] Post World-War II
After the war, Hayes attempted to lead an anonymous life. But it didn't turn out that way. "I kept getting hundreds of letters. And people would drive through the reservation, walk up to me and ask, 'Are you the Indian who raised the flag on Iwo Jima'?"
Ira Hayes appeared in the John Wayne movie Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), along with fellow flag raisers John Bradley and Rene Gagnon. All three men played themselves in the movie. Wayne hands the flag to be raised to the three men moments before Wayne's character was killed. (The actual flag that was raised on Mount Suribachi is used to recreate the incident in the film.)
Referring to his alcoholism, he once said: "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 the war, Hayes accumulated some fifty arrests for drunkenness.
In 1954, after a ceremony where he was lauded by President Eisenhower as a hero, a reporter rushed up to him and asked him, "How do you like the pomp and circumstance?" Hayes just hung his head and said, "I don't."
After getting home from the War, Ira could not stand that one of his friends, Harlon Block (one of the flagraisers, killed in action days after the event), was mis-identified as being another man (Hank Hanson) and hitchhiked all the way from his Pima indian reservation to Ed Block's farm in Texas, over 1000 miles. He was instrumental in having the controversy resolved, to the great delight and gratitude of the Block family.
[edit] Death
The book written by James Bradley, entitled "Flags of Our Fathers", documents that in the years following the war, Hayes suffered greatly from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, common among combat veterans, but something that did not receive major attention until the 1960's when World War II veteran and hero Audie Murphy spoke out publically for more studies into the disorder. Hayes suffered from alcoholism, and had numerous brushes with law enforcement in his home state. He rarely spoke about the flag raising, but spoke often about his time in the Marine Corp, taking great pride in that.
On January 24, 1955, Hayes was found dead, face down and laying in his own vomit and blood, near an abandoned hut close to his home on the Gila River Indian Reservation. He had been drinking and playing cards with several other men, including his brothers Kenny and Vernon, and another fellow Pima Indian named Henry Setoyant, with whom an argument developed during which the two men scuffled. Shortly afterward, the card game broke up, and all but Hayes and Setoyant left. The coroner concluded that Hayes' death was due to exposure and too much alcohol. However, his brother Kenny remained convinced that it somehow resulted from a scuffle with Setoyant. There was no police investigation, and Setoyant denied any allegations that he scuffled with Hayes after all those playing cards left for the night. Ira Hayes was 32.
Hayes is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. At the funeral, fellow flag-raiser Rene Gagnon said of him: "Let's say he had a little dream in his heart that someday the Indian would be like the white man — be able to walk all over the United States."
[edit] Commemoration
Ira's tragic story was immortalized in a song, "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", by Peter LaFarge. Covers of this song were done by Johnny Cash, Smiley Bates, Bob Dylan, Kinky Friedman and Townes van Zandt. In 1964, Johnny Cash took the song to number 3 on the Billboard country music chart.
On November 10, 1993, the U.S. Marine Corps held a ceremony at the Iwo Jima Memorial commemorating the 218th anniversary of the Corps. Of Ira Hayes, USMC Commandant General Carl Mundy said:
"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."
[edit] Portrayal in film
Ira Hayes has been portrayed in films three times:
- In the 1960 telefilm The American, he was played by Lee Marvin.
- Tony Curtis played Hayes in the 1961 film The Outsider.
- Hayes was portrayed by Adam Beach in the 2006 movie Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood. The movie was based on the 2000 bestselling book of the same name by James Bradley and Ron Powers.
[edit] Monuments and memorials
- The rearmost figure in the USMC War Memorial.
- Hayes Peak, the northernmost mountain in the Sierra Estrella.
- The Outsider (1961), starring Tony Curtis as Ira Hayes.
- "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" (1964), written by Peter LaFarge, performed by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Kinky Friedman, Townes van Zandt, and Patrick Sky.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Ó'Riain, Seán. "An Irishman's Diary", The Irish Times, 2006-09-01.
- ^ Corporal Ira Hamilton Hayes, USMCR. United States Marine Corp History and Museums Division. Retrieved on 2006-09-01.
[edit] Books about Ira Hayes
- Quiet Hero: The Ira Hayes Story written and illustrated by S. D. Nelson, (LEE & LOW BOOKS: 2006) ISBN 978-1-58430-263-6.
