Six Brave Soldiers-Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
The originator of the email says he was on a trip to Washington DC. At the Iwo Jima memorial, he ran into the son of one of the men who is in the famous picture of six men raising the American flag on Iwo Jima, a Japanese controlled island in the Pacific that was the scene of bloody fighting during World War II.
The Truth:
The author of this story is Michael T. Powers. It is published on his website at http://www.hearttouchers.com/iwojima.
It has also been reprinted in several books including Chicken Soup for the Grandparent’s Soul.
It was originally titled The Boys of Iwo Jima. The title has been changed by people who have forwarded it around the Internet and who have also eliminated the author’s name and added the last paragraph, which was not in the original.
A new version of the story started circulating in 2007 that added a P.S., which Michael Powers also said was not a part of the original story and he did not know where it came from. It said “One thing I learned while on tour with my 8th grade students in DC that is not mentioned here is that if you look at the statue very closely and count the number of “hands” raising the flag, there are 13. When the man who made the statue was asked why there were 13, he simply said the 13th hand was the hand of God.”
Also, the references to the men in the original story was “six brave men,” not “six brave soldiers,” but none of them would properly be called a soldier, which refers to those who serve in the Army. Five of them were Marines and one was a Sailor.
Last updated on 7/7/05