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Before we get to today's story about my experience at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington DC, I wanted to let all you writers out there know that I was contacted about a Chicken Soup writing opportunity for all of you! Barbara LoMonaco let me know that Chicken Soup for Mom's and their Boys Soul is still looking for stories for their upcoming book! Be sure to read the story call-out after today's story for your chance to have your story in a Chicken Soup book! And lastly, we finally have our "Breathing Life Into Others" CD available...a forty minute CD of a recent inspirational message I gave. You can listen to the message free on our website via streaming audio and then if you like what you hear you can purchase a CD for yourself or to share with others for $5 each. Visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/CD
Michael
The Boys of Iwo Jima by Michael T. Powers
On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. It is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- the W.W.II image of the six brave men raising the American flag at the top of Mount Surabachi on the Island of Iwo Jima, Japan. About one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed toward the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, "What's your name and where are you guys from? I told him that my name was Michael Powers and that we were from Clinton, Wisconsin. "Hey, I'm a Cheesehead, too! Come gather around Cheeseheads, 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 goodnight 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, DC 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. "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 which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me. Six boys raised the flag." That's when he pointed to the guy putting the pole in the ground and told us his name was 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 twenty-one, died with his intestines in his hands." Bradley shared that detail with us because he said that generals stand in front of the statue and talk about the glory of war. "You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen years old." He pointed again to the statue. "You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken, you would find a photograph in the webbing. A photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection, because he was scared. He was eighteen years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima. Boys. Not men." The next image on the statue was that of Sergeant Mike Strank, we learned. "Mike is my hero." Bradley exclaimed. "He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the 'old man' because he was so old. He was already twenty-four. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill the enemy' 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 next man on the statue was Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona who lived through the terror of Iwo Jima. "Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad and 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 twenty-seven of us walked off alive?'" "So you take your class at school. Two hundred and fifty of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only twenty-seven of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind." We learned that Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age of thirty-two, ten years after the famous photo was taken. "The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky, a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy," Bradley continued. "Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of nineteen. 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 mile away." Finally Bradley pointed to the statue's image of his father, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin. His dad lived until 1994, but declined all interviews. "When Walter Kronkite, 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 right there 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 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." Bradley recalled his third grade teacher calling the elder Bradley 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, Bradley finished. "Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, seven thousand 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 through the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero then ... and now. Michael T. Powers Copyright © 2000 by Michael T. Powers
Chicken Soup for Mom's and their Boys Soul Share Your Favorite Story
Topics will include but not be limited to: I Can't Believe He Said That! Tender Moments Special Occasions We're looking for inspirational, true stories, 1000 words or less that will touch the souls of the readers and make them laugh, cry, sigh or just say, "Wow!" Stories should be positive, hopeful, universal, and non-controversial. The "point" or "message" should be evident without preaching. No essays, eulogies, commentaries, tributes, sermons, philosophical or biographical pieces will be accepted. You may submit as many stories as you would like. For each story selected to be published in the book, a 50-word biography will be included about the author and a permission fee of $200 will be paid. The submission deadline is June 30, 2005. Email submissions are strongly preferred. Send stories with your name, address, phone and email address on the manuscript to Barbara LoMonaco at blomonaco@chickensoupforthesoul.com. If unable to email, please send a hard copy (and on disk if possible) c/o Chicken Soup for the Mother and Son Soul to Barbara LoMonaco, 326 Junipero Plaza, Santa Barbara, Ca. 93105. Material will not be returned. Finalists, only, will be notified prior to publication and permission to print will be requested. Thank you for joining us in touching the hearts of millions of moms and sons around the world. We look forward to getting your stories soon. Jack Canfield ________________________________________
"Amid the greatest difficulties of my Administration, when I could not see any other resort, I would place my whole reliance in God, knowing that all would go well, and that He would decide for the right." --Abraham Lincoln
"Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you." --Psalm 55:22
"You won't get out of doing the dishes if you break a cup. You'll just end up vacuuming the floor, too."
"A grandmother is a mother who has a second chance."
"Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind." --Seneca (4 B.C. - 65 A.D.)
"I used to tell people I was an aspiring writer. I've since learned that's not true. The job of 'writer' is not something you aspire to, that you graduate to, that you get around to doing someday. It's a job you already have, or maybe it's more apt to say writing is something that 'has' you." --Scott Nicholson
"Red meat is NOT bad for you. Now blue-green meat, THAT'S bad for you!"
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Dear Michael, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for the beautiful video you made for me! It was so special to see both of my parents in tears as they watched their children grow up in pictures before their eyes! I loved the way you made Estania's part set aside from the rest--that was the part that really got them! The music was beautiful. My mom kept blubbering, "What song is that?" I don't know how you did such a beautiful job with the video in such a short time. I really appreciate your doing it so quickly. You have a wonderful gift, and I thank God that you are using it to create such sentimental memories. I hope that I can find my niche like that in an area that I love. Your video gave us one of our most lasting Christmas memories! I hope yours was filled with moments to be treasured forever! Let me make you a video from your photos! __________________________________________
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Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
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