Ira Hayes
Ira Hayes
Ira Hayes (January 12, 1923 - January 24, 1955) was a Native American hero of World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima.
Born on the Gila Indian Reservation in Arizona, a full-blooded member of the Pima nation, Hayes left school in 1942 to enlist in the Marines. Trained as a paratrooper, he was nicknamed Chief Falling Cloud. After bootcamp, Hayes was sent to the Pacific. He 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. The raising of the American flag on the mountain by six GIs was immortalized by photographer Joe Rosenthal and became an icon of the war. Overnight, Hayes (who appears on the far right 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 of his Native American background.
Detail of "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
Refering to his drinking Ira 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 Ira and asked him, "How do you like the pomp & circumstances?" Ira just hung his head and said, I don't."
Ira died three months later after a night of drinking. As Ira drank his last bottle of whiskey he was crying and mumbling about his "good buddies." Ira was 32.
Hayes was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The tragic story of his life was immortalized in a song, "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," by Peter LaFarge and performed by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.
Post World-War II
After the war, Ira 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'?" 
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