1. Ira Hamilton Hayes was an Akimel O'odham American and a United States Marine during World War II.
58 Facts About Ira Hayes
1. 2.
Ira Hayes enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on August 26,1942, and, after recruit training, volunteered to become a Paramarine.
3.
Ira Hayes fought in the Bougainville and Iwo Jima campaigns in the Pacific War.
4.
Ira Hayes was generally known as one of the six men who appeared in the iconic photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by photographer Joe Rosenthal.
5.
Ira Hayes was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on February 2,1955.
6.
Ira Hayes was commemorated in art and film, before and after his death.
7.
Ira Hayes was the subject of an article by journalist William Bradford Huie, which was adapted for the feature film The Outsider, starring Tony Curtis as Hayes.
8.
The movie inspired songwriter Peter La Farge to write "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", which became popular nationwide in 1964 after being recorded by Johnny Cash.
9.
In 2006, Ira Hayes was portrayed by Adam Beach in the World War II movie Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood.
10.
Ira Hayes was born in Sacaton, Arizona, a town in the Gila River Indian Community in Pinal County.
11.
Ira Hayes was the eldest of six children born to Nancy Whitaker and Joseph Hayes.
12.
The Hayes children were: Ira, Harold, Leonard, Kenneth, Arlene and Vernon.
13.
Joseph Ira Hayes was a World War I veteran who supported his family by subsistence farming and its cotton harvesting.
14.
Nancy Ira Hayes was a devout Presbyterian and a Sunday school teacher at the Assemblies of God church in Sacaton.
15.
Ira Hayes was remembered by his family and friends as being a shy and sensitive child.
16.
Ira Hayes learned to read and write by the age of four and was a voracious reader.
17.
The Ira Hayes children attended grade school in Sacaton and high school at the Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix, Arizona.
18.
Ira Hayes was working as a carpenter during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
19.
Ira Hayes confided to his classmate Eleanor Pasquale after the Japanese attack that he was determined to serve in the United States Marine Corps.
20.
Ira Hayes worked as a carpenter before enlisting in the military.
21.
Ira Hayes enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on August 26,1942.
22.
Ira Hayes became the first Pima in history to receive his paratrooper wings, to which he received the codename of Chief Falling Cloud.
23.
On March 14,1943, Ira Hayes sailed for New Caledonia with the 3rd Parachute Battalion, which was assigned to Camp Kiser there on March 25 until September 26; the unit was redesignated in April as Company K, 3rd Parachute Battalion, 1st Marine Parachute Regiment of the I Marine Amphibious Corps.
24.
Ira Hayes was transferred to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment of the newly activated 5th Marine Division at Camp Pendleton.
25.
The flag flying on top of Mount Suribachi that Ira Hayes helped raise was taken down.
26.
Easy Company had many casualties, Ira Hayes was one of five marines remaining from his original platoon of forty-five men, including their corpsmen.
27.
Once he arrived in Hawaii, Ira Hayes continued to train with E Company at Camp Tarawa.
28.
Ira Hayes was transferred to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, where he was shown Rosenthal's flag-raising photograph and was told he was in it.
29.
Ira Hayes agreed with all the names including his own except he said that the man identified as Sgt.
30.
Ira Hayes was ordered to report to the 28th Marines in Hawaii.
31.
Ira Hayes served on occupation duty in Japan with E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines from September 22 to October 26,1945.
32.
Ira Hayes was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, California on December 1,1945.
33.
On February 21,1946, Ira Hayes was awarded a Navy Commendation from the Marine Corps for meritorious service in combat during World War II.
34.
Ira Hayes attempted to lead a normal civilian life after the war.
35.
Ira Hayes seemed to be disturbed that Harlon Block was still being misrepresented publicly as "Hank" Hansen.
36.
In May 1946, Ira Hayes walked and hitchhiked 1,300 miles from the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona to Edward Frederick Block, Sr.
37.
Ira Hayes was instrumental in having the mistaken second flag-raiser controversy resolved by the Marine Corps in January 1947.
38.
Ira Hayes said that she had known from the time she first saw the famous picture in the newspaper that it was her son in the photo.
39.
John "Jack" Thurman, who appears at the far left of Rosenthal's "Gung Ho" photograph recounted a story of his friendship with Ira Hayes who was at the far left of the photo next to Jack.
40.
Jack recounted at a breakfast meeting that, sometime after the war, Ira Hayes hitchhiked across the country to visit him at his home farm in Mitchell, South Dakota.
41.
Ira Hayes arrived while Jack was away from the farm and Jack's mother would not allow Ira Hayes to wait at the house and made him wait at the end of the driveway by the road.
42.
Once all was explained when Jack got home, Ira Hayes was welcomed into the house.
43.
In 1949, Ira Hayes appeared briefly as himself in the film Sands of Iwo Jima, starring John Wayne.
44.
Ira Hayes was arrested 52 times for alcohol intoxication in public at various places in the country, including Chicago in October 1953.
45.
Ira Hayes held a variety of jobs, including being a chauffeur to Elizabeth Martin, former wife of Dean Martin, where he lived in her Beverly Hills home for several months but couldn't stop drinking.
46.
The 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood, suggests that Ira Hayes suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
47.
Ira Hayes had been drinking and playing cards on the reservation with his friends and brothers Vernon and Kenneth.
48.
The Pinal County coroner concluded that Ira Hayes's death was caused by exposure and alcohol poisoning.
49.
Ira Hayes is shown drunk and freezing on a mountain top and unable to climb down.
50.
Ira Hayes falls asleep and is shown frozen to death with his arm and hand reaching upwards, like the time he raised the flag on Mount Suribachi.
51.
On February 2,1955, Ira Hayes was buried in Section 34, Grave 479A at Arlington National Cemetery.
52.
Ira Hayes is depicted as the sixth bronze figure from the base of the flagstaff on the memorial with the 32 foot bronze figures of the other five flag-raisers depicted on the memorial.
53.
Ira Hayes did not meet the Marine Corps four-year service requirement in World War II for the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal.
54.
Ira Hayes is the subject of the song, "Blinding Flashes" written by The Rumjacks.
55.
Ira Hayes appeared as himself in the 1949 John Wayne film, Sands of Iwo Jima.
56.
Ira Hayes was portrayed by Adam Beach in the 2006 movie Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood.
57.
Ira Hayes is mentioned in the poem "Petroglyphs of Serena" by Adrian C Louis.
58.
Ira Hayes was mentioned briefly in the book "Code Talker" by Joseph Bruchac and was mentioned multiple times in the book "Indian Killer" by Sherman Alexie.