The Seventh War Bond Drive and The Sixth Man Controversy
Upon seeing the photo, President Franklin D. Roosevelt realized the picture would make an excellent symbol for the upcoming seventh war bond drive, and ordered the Marines identified and brought home. The Marines were brought home at the conclusion of the battle. Using a photo enlargement, Rene Gagnon identified the others in the photograph, but refused to identify the sixth man (Hayes), insisting he had promised to keep the man's name a secret. Gagnon had promised not to discuss Hayes' identity because Hayes—who despised Gagnon—had threatened to kill him. After being brought to Marine Corps headquarters and informed that he was being ordered by the President to reveal the information, and that refusing an order to reveal the name would be a serious crime, Gagnon finally revealed Hayes' name.
Gagnon also misidentified Harlon Block as Sergeant Henry O. "Hank" Hansen, who had not survived the battle (but who had, incidentally, participated in the first flag-raising). Initially, John Bradley concurred with all of Gagnon's identifications. On April 8, 1945, the Marine Corps released the identification of five of the flag raisers (including Hansen)—Sousley's identity was withheld pending notification of his family of his death during the battle.
The three survivors went on a whirlwind bond tour. The tour was a success, raising $26.3 billion, twice the tour's goal.
Questions lingered about the misidentification of Harlon Block. His mother, Belle Block, refused to accept the official identification, noting that she had "changed so many diapers on that boy's butt, I know it's my boy." Immediately on arrival in Washington, D.C. on April 19, Hayes noticed the misidentification in the photo, and informed the Marine public relations officer who had been assigned to him. The public relations officer told Hayes that the identifications had already been officially released, and ordered Hayes to keep silent about it.
Over a year and a half later, suffering from depression and alcoholism that would characterize the rest of his life, Ira Hayes hitchhiked to Texas to inform Block's family that Block had, in fact, been the sixth flag raiser.
Ira remembered what Rene Gagnon and John Bradley could not have remembered, because they did not join the little cluster until the last moment: that it was Harlon, Mike, Franklin and himself who had ascended Suribachi midmorning to lay telephone wire; it was Rene who had come along with the replacement flag. Hansen had not been part of this action.
Block's mother, Belle, immediately composed a letter to her congressional representative Milton West. West, in turn, forwarded the letter to Marine Corps Commandant Alexander Vandegrift, who ordered an investigation. Both Bradley and Gagnon, upon being shown the evidence, agreed that it was probably Block and not Hansen.
Read more about this topic: Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima
Famous quotes containing the words seventh, war, bond, drive, sixth, man and/or controversy:
“Hard-hearted girl,
get rid of these doubts
based on false rumor.
It’s not good
to subject me to sorrow
because of backbiters’ words,
or have you decided now,
silly girl,
that it’s all true?
Do to me what you will,
sweetheart.
Suit yourself.”
—Amaru (c. seventh century A.D.)
“Newspaperman: That was a magnificent work. There were these mass columns of Apaches in their war paint and feather bonnets. And here was Thursday leading his men in that heroic charge.
Capt. York: Correct in every detail.
Newspaperman: He’s become almost a legend already. He’s the hero of every schoolboy in America.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)
“Every doctor will allow a colleague to decimate a whole countryside sooner than violate the bond of professional etiquet by giving him away.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Practically everyone now bemoans Western man’s sense of alienation, lack of community, and inability to find ways of organizing society for human ends. We have reached the end of the road that is built on the set of traits held out for male identity—advance at any cost, pay any price, drive out all competitors, and kill them if necessary.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)
“The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A man of good sense always believes what he is told, and what he finds written down.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)