Ira Hamilton Hayes

And I think, you know, The Navajo Code Talkers are part of Marine Corps lore, and sure, they were extremely effective in their jobs.

Ira Hayes raised the flag on Iwo Jima, and Johnny Cash wrote a song about him and what happened to him after that event.

There's a good book since we're asking about books called Strong Hearts, Strong Hearts, Wounded Souls.

And it's about Native American Indian Vietnam veterans and all this like racism that, you know, they were good at tracking or just in touch with the outdoors.

The six men immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the second flag raising were Sgt. Michael Strank, Pharmacist Mate 2C John H. Bradley, Corporal Harlan H.

Block, and Privates 1st Class Ira H. Hayes, Franklin R. Sousley, and Rene A. Gagnon.

The 28th Marines took Suribachi in three days at the cost of more than 500 troops.

added to its D-Day losses of 400 men.

The six men who participated in the second or famous flag raising on Mount Suribachi were Marines, joined by a medical corpsman.

They were Sergeant Michael Strank, Pharmacist Mate 2C John H. Bradley, U.S. Navy, Corporal Harlan H.

Block, and PFCs Ira H. Hayes, Franklin R. Sousley, and Rene A. Gagnon.

AP photographer Joe Rosenthal recalls stumbling on the picture accidentally.

He was the last surviving man in the photograph until his death in 1995 at the age of 70.

Finally, reaching up in perpetuity is PFC Ira Hayes from Sacaton, Arizona.

A Pima Indian and a member of the Gila River Indian Community, Hayes was the first Pima to receive paratrooper wings, earning the nickname Chief Falling Cloud.

He was a shy and sensitive kid and could go for days without speaking, but also a precocious and voracious reader, who later on was determined to serve in the Marines after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

He became an alcoholic, was arrested 52 times for public intoxication.

And ultimately died of alcohol poisoning and exposure in 1955.

In a story later described by Peter Lafarge in his folk song, The Ballad of Ira Hayes, which would go on to be covered by Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan.

Hayes was only 32 years old when he died, unable to bear the weight of war hero, of flag raiser, of national symbol, of being one of the lucky ones.

The resulting media firestorm put Vivian and her daughter's lives in danger.

The KKK saw the photos and, wanting to get back at Johnny for his pro-Native American rights stance in his song Ira Hayes, published papers stating that Vivian was a Black woman.

Roseanne Cash did discover that Vivian had one ancestor of color decades after this, but the Liberto family was Italian.

What did Johnny do to protect his wife and daughters from racist threats? He took off on tour with June again.