Ira Hayes

He was the eldest of six children born to Nancy Whitaker (1901–1972) and Joseph Hayes (1901–1986).

Ira Hamilton Hayes (January 12, 1923 – January 24, 1955) was an Akimel O'odham Indigenous American and a United States Marine during World War II.

Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community, located in Pinal and Maricopa counties in Arizona.

The Hayes children were: Ira (1923–1955), Harold (1924–1925), Leonard (1925–1962), Kenneth (1931–2019), Arlene (1933-1938) and Vernon (1937–1957).

Joseph Hayes was a World War I veteran who supported his family by subsistence farming and its cotton harvesting.

Nancy Hayes was a devout Presbyterian and a Sunday school teacher at the Assemblies of God church in Sacaton.

Hayes was remembered by his family and friends as being a shy and sensitive child.

Sara Bernal, his niece, said, "Ira Hayes was a very quiet man; he would go days without saying anything unless you spoke to him first. The other Hayes children would play and tease me, but not Ira. He was quiet, and somewhat distant. Ira didn't speak unless spoken to. He was just like his father."

His boyhood friend Dana Norris said, "Even though I'm from the same culture, I could never get under his skin. Ira had the characteristic of not wanting to talk. But we Pimas are not prone to tooting our own horns. Ira was a quiet guy, such a quiet guy."

Despite this, Hayes was a precocious child who displayed an impressive grasp of the English language, a language that many Pima never learned to speak.

He learned to read and write by the age of four and was a voracious reader.

In 1932, the family settled in Bapchule, Arizona, approximately 12 miles northwest of Sacaton.

The Hayes children attended grade school in Sacaton and high school at the Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix, Arizona.

Ira Hayes was working as a carpenter during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Hayes confided to his classmate Eleanor Pasquale after the Japanese attack that he was determined to serve in the United States Marine Corps.

Pasquale said, "Every morning in school, [the students] would get a report on World War II. We would sing the anthems of the Army, Marines, and the Navy."

He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on August 26, 1942, and, after recruit training, volunteered to become a Paramarine.

He fought in the Bougainville and Iwo Jima campaigns in the Pacific War.

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.

Hayes completed two years at the Phoenix Indian School and served in the Civilian Conservation Corps in May and June 1942.

He worked as a carpenter before enlisting in the military.

Hayes enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on August 26, 1942.

The first flag raised over Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945 at the south end of Iwo Jima, was deemed too small and replaced the same day by a larger flag.

A photo of the second flag-raising, which included Hayes in it, became famous and was widely reproduced.

After the battle, Hayes and two other men were identified as surviving second flag-raisers and were reassigned to help raise funds for the Seventh War Loan drive.

In 1946, after his service in the Marine Corps, he was instrumental in revealing the correct identity of one of the Marines in the photograph.

After the war, Hayes suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and descended into alcoholism.

He completed recruit training in Platoon 701 at Marine Corps Base, San Diego (renamed in 1948 to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego) and in October volunteered for Marine paratrooper (Paramarine) training at the Marine Parachute School at Camp Gillespie located east of San Diego.

Ira Hayes became the first Pima in history to receive his paratrooper wings, to which he received the codename of Chief Falling Cloud.

On November 30, he graduated from the Parachute Training School and received his silver "jump wings".

On December 1, he was promoted to private first class.

In 1949, he portrayed himself raising the flag in the movie Sands of Iwo Jima, starring John Wayne.

On November 10, 1954, he attended the dedication of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, which was modeled after the photograph of Hayes and five other Marines raising the second flag on Iwo Jima.

After a night of heavy drinking on January 23–24, 1955, he died of exposure to cold and alcohol poisoning.

He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on February 2, 1955.

Hayes was commemorated in art and film, before and after his death.

He was the subject of an article by journalist William Bradford Huie, which was adapted for the feature film The Outsider (1961), starring Tony Curtis as Hayes.

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.

In 2006, Hayes was portrayed by Adam Beach in the World War II movie Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Ira Hayes was born in Sacaton, Arizona, a town in the Gila River Indian Community in Pinal County.