Ira Hamilton Hayes (January 12, 1923 – January 24, 1955) was a full blood Akimel O’odham, or Pima Indian, and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community. A survivor of World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima, Hayes was trained as a Paramarine in the United States Marine Corps (USMC), and became one of five Marines, along with a US Navy corpsman, immortalized in the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima.

Portrait of Ira Hamilton Hayes

Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima.

The son of Joe E. and Nancy W. Hayes, Ira Hayes was born on the Gila River Indian Reservation in Sacaton, Arizona. Hayes left school in 1942 to enlist in the Marines. Trained as a paratrooper, he was nicknamed Chief Falling Cloud. After boot camp, Hayes was sent to the Pacific. He participated in the battle for the island of Iwo Jima, and was among the group of Marines that took Mount Suribachi four days later. The raising of the second American flag on the mountain by five Marines and a Navy Corpsman was immortalized by photographer Joe Rosenthal and became an icon of the war. Overnight, Hayes (who appears on the far left 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 he was Native American.

Hayes was promoted to the rank of corporal before being discharged from the Marine Corps. His decorations and medals include the Commendation Ribbon with "V" combat device, Presidential Unit Citation with one star (for Iwo Jima), Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with four stars (for Vella Lavella, Bougainville, Consolidation of the Northern Solomons, and Iwo Jima), American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.

Post World-War II

After the war, Hayes 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'?"

Ira Hayes appeared in the John Wayne movie Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), along with fellow flag raisers John Bradley and Rene Gagnon. All three men played themselves in the movie. He sat with Wayne in the movie on the mountain and handed him the flag moments before Wayne's character was killed.

In 1954, after a ceremony where he was lauded by President Eisenhower as a hero, a reporter rushed up to him and asked him, "How do you like the pomp and circumstance?" Hayes just hung his head and said, "I don't."

On January 24, 1955, Hayes was found dead near an abandoned hut close to his home on the Gila River Indian Reservation. He had been drinking and playing cards with several other men, including his brothers Kenny and Vernon, and another fellow Pima Indian named Henry Setoyant. The coroner concluded that Hayes' death was due to exposure and too much alcohol. However, his brother Kenny remained convinced that it somehow resulted from a scuffle with Setoyant. Ira Hayes was 32.

Hayes is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. A few hundred yards away he is imortalized in the Marine Corps. War Memorial Monument dedicated to all U.S. Marines who have fallen in battle.

Source

O'Rian, Sean - "An Irishman's Diary", The Irish Times (2006-09-01)

"Corporal Ira Hamilton Hayes, USMCR" - United States Marine Corp History and Museaum Division (2006-09-01)