Now we come to end of the Flag-Raisers and their chronicles. Ira Hamilton Hayes was an Akimel O’odham Native American with the nickname(s) of “Chief Falling Cloud”, or “Chief”. He was born January 12, 1923 in Sacaton, Arizona. He died January 24, 1955 at age 32 in Bapchule, Arizona.
Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community, located in Pinal and Maricopa counties in Arizona. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on August 26, 1942, and, after recruit training, volunteered to become a Paramarine.
A Corporal in United States Marine Corps from 1941–1945, he saw action in Vella Lavella; the Bougainville Campaign; Consolidation of the Northern Solomons; and the Battle of Iwo Jima. He was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat “V” and the Combat Action Ribbon.
After the war, Hayes suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. 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. “In 1949, he portrayed himself raising the flag in the movie ‘Sands of Iwo Jima’, starring John Wayne. 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 the eldest of six children. Hayes was remembered as being a shy and sensitive child. “Ira Hayes was a very quiet man; he would go days without saying anything unless you spoke to him first. He was quiet, and somewhat distant. Ira didn’t speak unless spoken to. 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.”
Ira Hayes was working as a carpenter during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. “He confided to his classmate Eleanor Pasquale after the Japanese attack that he was determined to serve in the United States Marine Corps.”
Hayes enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on August 26, 1942 and 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”.”
Hayes in Easy Company of the 5th Marine Division landed on Iwo Jima on February 19. Hayes became one of five Marines from his original platoon of forty-five men including their corpsmen that survived Iwo Jima. On February 21, 1946, Hayes was awarded a Navy Commendation from the Marine Corps for meritorious service in combat during World War II.
Hayes attempted to lead a normal civilian life after the war. “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?’ Although Hayes rarely spoke about the flag raising, he talked more generally about his service in the Marine Corps with great pride.”
“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. Hayes seemed to be disturbed that Harlon Block was still being misrepresented publicly as “Hank” Hansen. In May 1946, Hayes walked and hitchhiked 1,300 miles from the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona to Edward Frederick Block, Sr.’s farm in Weslaco, Texas, to reveal the truth to Block’s parents about their son Harlon being in Rosenthal’s flag raising photograph. He was instrumental in having the mistaken second flag-raiser controversy resolved by the Marine Corps in January 1947.”
Hayes was unable to hold onto a steady job for long, as he had become an alcoholic. “He was arrested 52 times for alcohol intoxication in public at various places in the country, including Chicago in October 1953. He held a variety of jobs, including being a chauffeur to Elizabeth Martin, former wife of Dean Martin, where he lived in her Beverly Hills home for several months but couldn’t stop drinking.”
Referring to his alcoholism, he once said: “I was sick. I guess I was about to crack up thinking about all my good buddies. They were better men than me and they’re not coming back. Much less back to the White House, like me.” Hayes was sober while attending the Marine Corps War Memorial dedication on November 10, 1954. Hayes met President Dwight D. Eisenhower who lauded him as a hero. A reporter there approached Hayes and asked him, “How do you like the pomp and circumstance?” Hayes hung his head and said, “I don’t.”
On the morning of January 24, 1955, Hayes was found dead lying near an abandoned adobe hut near where he lived in Sacaton, Arizona. He had been drinking and playing cards on the reservation with his friends and brothers Vernon and Kenneth. “An altercation ensued between Hayes and a Pima Indian named Henry Setoyant, and all left except Hayes and Setoyant. The Pinal County coroner concluded that Hayes’s death was caused by exposure and alcohol poisoning. However, his brother Kenneth, a Korean War veteran, believed that the death resulted from the altercation with Setoyant. The reservation police did not conduct an investigation into Hayes’s death, and Setoyant denied any allegations of fighting with Hayes. There was no autopsy.”
Hayes’ funeral was held in the C.H. Cook Memorial Church in Sacaton, Arizona. On February 2, 1955, Hayes was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. At the funeral, Rene Gagnon (incorrectly thought to be a flag raiser, when it was correctly identified as Harold Keller later) said of him: “Let’s say he had a little dream in his heart that someday the Indian would be like the white man — be able to walk all over the United States.”