Along with four other marines and one sailor, PFC Ira Hayes raised the American flag for the second time over Mount Suribachi on the tiny island of Iwo Jima, just about seven hundred miles south of Tokyo, Japan, on February 23, 1945. On this fifth day of the battle, photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the image on film that would serve as the icon glorified for the United States Marine Corps and the nemesis of a humble and reluctant hero.
Ira Hayes: the Early Years
A Native American of the Pima Tribe in Arizona, Ira Hayes was born on January 12, 1923. He was a quiet and shy child who performed well in his studies, but because of the poverty on the Gila River Indian Reservation, he left high school there after attending only two years in order to work for the Civilian Conservation Corps. He eventually became a carpenter, but decided to join the Marine Corps in August of 1942 to do his patriotic duty.
After completing basic recruit training, Ira was sent to become a Paramarine, and after a month, he mastered parachuting from airplanes. He was transferred then to combat duty in the campaigns of Vella Lavella and Bougainville, fighting until January 1944. With eleven months of combat experience, Ira then returned to the United States, where his Paramarine outfit was disbanded. He went on to further training in Hawaii for the Marine Infantry. In January of 1945, he sailed for the volcanic island of the Japanese-held Iwo Jima. His rank was Private First Class.
Ira Hayes and the Iconic Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima lies midway between Japan and the Mariana Islands. At first, it wasn’t considered to be part of the United States Navy Island Hopping Campaign, but then, because of its strategic importance as part of a Japanese early warning system to reduce destruction from American aerial bombardment, it was chosen to be attacked. It was heavily defended by some twenty-one thousand Japanese troops deeply entrenched in tunnels leading to outside pillboxes and machine gun nests, backed up and fortified by heavy artillery. PFC Ira Hayes landed on D-day, February 19, 1945, with the Fifth Marine Division.
The first flag raising was completed earlier on the day of February 23, 1945, but the small flag was unseeable by the marines from down below. The colonel ordered the raising of a larger flag, which was accomplished by Ira Hayes, four other marines, and one sailor. Ira had been laying a telephone wire with the other marines on top of Suribachi earlier that day. The raising was photographed by Joe Rosenthal. Ira Hayes is noticeable as the figure on the extreme left with arms and hands raised after releasing the flagpole.
Ira Hayes went on afterward to fight bravely in the rest of the battle for Iwo Jima. He remained until March 26, 1945, when he was sent back to the United States. He became deeply troubled by the fact that three of the marines with whom he had raised the flag had been brutally killed by the enemy during the remaining conflict. Out of two hundred fifty marines in Ira’s company, only twenty-seven were left unwounded or alive.
Ira Hayes is Honored as a Hero
PFC Hayes returned to the United States and was praised as a war hero by President Truman. He embarked on a bond tour to raise some twenty-six billion dollars for the war effort, accompanied by the two other surviving flag raisers. Ira kept insisting that he was no hero, that “his good buddies” left behind on the desolate volcanic island, never to return, were the true heroes of the battle. Shortly thereafter, he began to drink heavily to dull the trauma and everlasting anguish of his survivor’s guilt.
After being promoted to Corporal, Hayes served a short tour of duty in post-war occupied Japan. He was discharged honorably on December 1, 1945. By then, he had received many honors, including:
- Commendation Ribbon with “V” combat device for Vella Lavella, Bougainville, and Iwo Jima
- 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
- World War II Victory Medal
The years following the war were agonizing for Ira. Every day, all day long, he brooded over the “victory” on Iwo Jima and how he never really left there, his soul remaining with lost comrades in arms. He worked sporadically, never amounting to much. The war was over and done with, and no one would listen to the feelings tearing him asunder deep within. He turned to alcohol more and more. He never married.
Ira Hayes died on January 24, 1955, in Bapchule, Arizona. He was thirty-two years old. He was found face down in a drainage ditch, having died from the effects of alcoholism, exposure to the elements, and drowning in two inches of water; the water denied his People, the Pima, to raise their crops. He is memorialized in the Ballad of Ira Hayes, written by Peter LaFarge and sung by Johnny Cash. Ira is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He remained true to the Marine Corps motto, Semper Fidelis.
