HYSTERICAL JOURNEY TO HISTORIC PLACES

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IRA HAMILTON HAYES



Ira was a Pima Indian and a damn good Marine. He enlisted in the Corps on August 26, 1942 at the age of 19. On November 30 he graduated from jump school, made PFC the next day and the following day was assigned duty with a Marine parachute outfit. On March 14 they all sailed merrily off to go fight the Japs in the South Pacific. They waded ashore in April at New Caledonia to harden themselves to the tropics. Between October 14 and December 3 they were busily bloodying up the Japs on Vella Lavella. On December 4, 1943 they joined the heavy fighting on Bougainville until January 15 when the decimated outfit was pulled out of action and returned to Camp Pendleton for reorganization. During that vicious fighting Ira carried the Browning automatic rifle for his platoon. Those gunners drew heavy Jap fire. Ira, no doubt, returned better than he got and saddened the hearts of a great many Jap mothers. The parachute units were disbanded in February and Ira was assigned to Company E, 2^nd Battalion, 28^th Regiment in the 5^th Marine Division. They were ready to return to the war in September and set sail for Hawaii where they were held in reserve for future action. On February 19, 1945 they met their future good and hard on Iwo Jima. Of the 45 Marines in Ira’s platoon who landed on Iwo Jima that day Ira was one of only 5 who survived to walk off it on March 26. He happened to be one of a small group of Marines and one Navy medic who were photographed by a man named Joe Rosenthal while raising the second battle flag on top of Mount Suribachi. The photo made the cover of Life Magazine because the fighting on Iwo Jima was so fierce and bloody. Only three of the men who were in the photo survived the battle and were regaled as combat heroes all across America. Ira, Renee Gagnon, and the medic, James Bradley, were ordered to Washington D. C. to shake hands with President Truman and go off on a celebrity bond drive. It was cushy duty and they raised a pile of money for the war effort, and Ira got promoted to corporal, but he was a very unhappy Marine. He started in drinking heavily because the real heroes in that battle were the thousands of boys who never came home. Ira returned to his unit, and served in the occupation of Japan until he was honorably discharged in December of 1945. For the rest of his life Ira suffered from survivor’s guilt. In 1947 he hitch-hiked 1300 miles from Sacaton to Weslaco, TX in order to set the record straight with a grieving mother that one of the men in the picture was her son, Harlon Block. In the years that followed Ira was arrested 52 times for public drunkenness. In January of 1955 Ira was found dead near his home in Bapchule. He died of exposure to the elements and alcohol poisoning. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington Cemetery, but he was not a hero. He was a Pima Indian and a damn good Marine. Semper Fidelis.

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Photos

IRA HAYES
This is the statue erected to honor the memory of Ira Hayes at the veterans park in Sacaton. From Casa Grande go north on I-10 to Casa Blanca Rd. Turn right and proceed eastward five miles to the park. Bring plenty of drinking water and sun screen, and do not step on any rattlers.