It is small – 8 square miles – and occupied only by a volcano, Mt. Iwo Jima lies in the Pacific Ocean south east of Japan. This book opened my eyes to the tragedy of what happened on that island, and why the battle was important to the outcome of the war. In all the years during and since my time in the Marine Corps, I never learned the full story of the flag-raising picture that’s always stirred emotion in me. The Corpsman is protected and valued almost as much as a Marine’s rifle – the bond is strong. (The Marine Corps began as a segment of the Navy.) The Corpsman is a valuable member of a Marine unit and in a time of war trains and serves with the Marines. The Marine’s medical needs are tended to by Navy Corpsman. He was known as Doc Bradley. The Marine Corps doesn’t have its own medical staff. ![]() John was a Navy Corpsman who served with a Marine battalion that was one of the units that captured Iwo Jima. Bradley’s father, John Bradley, was one of the men in the picture. It tells the story behind the picture and statue memorial of the famous flag-raising on Iwo Jima in WWII. Then, on my first trip to Arlington when I was 19 years old and 2 years into my Marine Corps career, I saw the larger-than-life statue created from the photograph, and I stood in awe in front of it, not even able to imagine the story it tells.įlags of our Fathers is a work of non-fiction. The first time I saw a picture of that flag-raising, I remember feeling it was a visual representation of what it felt like it meant to be a Marine. The Marine Corps embodies ‘esprit de corps’: teamwork, devotion, enthusiasm, and honor. My favorite Marine Corps memorial is the statue in Arlington of the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima. This is a book I need to own in its paper version, because it holds an account of a very important story that, if it hadn’t been captured and put on paper by Bradley, could be lost forever. GradeSaver, 16 October 2010 Web.Flags of our Fathers has been on my digital bookshelf for a couple of years. Next Section Flags of Our Fathers Summary Buy Study Guide How To Cite in MLA Format Joyce, Meghan. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, and Eastwood was nominated for a Golden Globe award for directing. James Bradley's father, John, is played by Ryan Phillipe. In 2006, Spielberg produced the film with Clint Eastwood, who also directed, co-wrote, and scored it. The book was a success, and soon after its release, Steven Spielberg acquired the film rights. He wrote Flags of Our Fathers with the help of Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Powers. ![]() His father, a navy corpsman, PFC Ira Hayes and PFC Rene Gagnon survived the war, while SGT Michael Strank, CPL Harlon Block, and PFC Franklin Sousley died later in the battle. It would later be on the New York Times Bestseller List for forty-six weeks.īradley conducted extensive research and interviews with family members, friends, fellow Marines, and others to tell the stories of the six men before, during, and after the flagraising. ![]() His idea was turned down by twenty-seven publishers over the course of twenty-five months, and was finally published in 2000 by Bantam Books. After the death of his father, John, James Bradley was inspired to research the lives of the six men (including his father) in the famous photograph of the raising of the American flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima.
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