Summer Reading Review: Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley

Over the summer I read Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley. Overall it was a great book that wasn't overly long to read and not a difficult book to read.
At the start of the book John Bradley's son goes from Rye, New York to Iwo Jima a small Japanese island where one of the biggest battles of World War 2 (WW2) happened. His father was one of the "flag raisers" on the island where one of the most famous pictures of all time was taken. When the U.S. solders first stepped onto the beach it was all calm and everything was going good, until the Japanese started firing from caves in the side of the mountain, foxholes and bunkers all camouflaged in with the ground. The U.S. troops had to sprint to get beside the foxhole throw in a grandae and then shoot into the foxhole with their weapons. They climbed to the top of the mountain and raised the first flag and after that the Japanese tried to pin down U.S. solders on top of the mountain. After that a U.S. general went ashore and told the solders to take down the flag so the captain told his men to put up a different flag and take down and keep the orinagal flag. Within 2 weeks of the flag being raised 3 of the 6 men had died. The other three Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes and John Bradley was sent home to raise money for war efforts. Their First stop at home was at a yankees game where it was a very surreal crowd. The next day they meet the president Harry Truman. Mr. Truman told the men to make tons of money and a few of the stops along the way. When they arrived in NYC there was a monster crowd waiting there for them. Rene was speaking on that night and Ira didn't like what he was saying so after they were done speaking Ira got into a confrontation with Rene over it. When John meet Hanks mother he didn't have the heart to tell her that her son wasn't in the picture but instead it was Harlon Block in the picture. When Ira meet Mikes mother he broke down and balled and told her that her son was the best marine that landed on that island. Rene meet Franks mother and didn't have much to say without breaking down. After they raised the flag a few Japanese soldiers tried to ambush them but it didn't work. they changed out the flags so that the higher ranks didn't get the flag because the captain of the platoon believe it belonged to that platoon. "The secretary reached the beach just after the flag went up, and the mood among high command turned jubilant. Forrestal was so taken with the fervor of the moment that he decided that he wanted the Suribachi flag as a souvenir(page 108)". While they were on the tour Ira started drinking really badly. When they went to Soldier Field they made a model for them to climb up and post a flag on and Ira didn't want to so he left. John found him outside a bar with a chair in an altercation with a chair and the police. They went back to the stadium and raised the flag but as they climbed up to the top they all had flash backs of the other flaggers that couldn't make it to where they were. Mike died from a friendly airstrike, Harlon and Frank both got shot from enemy machine guns. Iggy one of the other men in the platoon got brutally murdered by the Japanese. Ira gets shipped back to the war and before he told them that he couldn't handle being called a hero everywhere he went cause he didn't think he was. Rene got married shortly after that and asked John to be his best man. While in the war John was trying to save a coreman and took shrapnel in the legs and back. After returning to home after both the tour and war John asked his wife to marry him. Ira just tried to move on back to a Native Americans life but couldn't because people recognized who he was somehow or another. Rene tried to take up job offers that he received on tour but  no-one "remembered" them. Instead he took a job as a janitor that he worked until he passed away. One day after Ira got out of jail he waled 1,300 miles from Arizona to Texas to a small farm that Harlon Blocks father owned and told him the truth. When Hank's parents got the news they were divested at the truth. When they built the stature in Arlington, Virginia they didn't even invite Hank's parents to the opening of it. Ira died of exposure one day working on the farm, but there was never an autopsy done. One day John went and told Iggy's mother how her son died but no-one believes what was said on that day was the truth. As John Bradley lied on his death bed in 1994 he told his son of how after they raised the fag on Iwo Jima they went down to the beach and went swimming like a bunch of kids.