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John "Jack" "Doc" Bradley ( July 10 , 1923 — January 11 , 1994 ) was a United States Navy Corpsman during World War II , and one of the six men who took part in Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima . Accompanying him were SGT Michael Strank , CPL Harlon Block , PFC Ira Hayes , and PFC Franklin Sousley . About halfway up the mountain, they were joined by PFC Rene Gagnon , who had a larger flag on orders to place it so that it could be seen from great distance. EARLY YEARS Born John Henry Bradley in Antigo, Wisconsin to James and Kathryn Bradley, he was the second of five children. He grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin , and reportedly had an interest in entering the Funeral Parlor business from an early age. WORLD WAR II When he was 19, his father suggested he enlist in the Navy so he could avoid ground combat. However, the Navy chose him to become a medical corpsman and he was eventually assigned to the United States Marine Corps. As a Marine medical corpsmen, he took part in the assault on Iwo Jima , one of the most bitterly fought battles of the Pacific War 's Island-hopping campaign. In March 1943, Bradley began his medical corpsman training and was initially stationed at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Oakland . He was then assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines , of the 5th Marine Division , which was being formed at Camp Pendleton , California . After participating in the famous flag-raising at Mt. Suribachi , John Bradley was awarded the Navy Cross for rushing to a wounded man's aid under heavy Japanese fire. A few days later, he received several Shrapnel wounds in his legs, and was evacuated from the combat zone to a hospital in Hawaii . AWARDS Pharmacist's Mate Second Class Bradley was awarded the following decorations and awards:
, by Joe Rosenthal / Associated Press ]] (red), Franklin Sousley (violet), John Bradley (green), Harlon Block (yellow), Michael Strank (brown), Rene Gagnon (teal).]] Navy Cross citation
POST-WAR LIFE Sgt Strank, Cpl Block, and Pfc Sousley were all Killed In Action later on in the battle. Only Bradley, Hayes and Gagnon survived the battle, and were brought back to the United States to tour the country for the seventh war bond drive. The bond drive helped lift morale back stateside. Following his appearances at the last bond tour, John Bradley married his childhood sweetheart, Betty Van Gorp, settled down in Antigo, and had eight children. He rarely took part in ceremonies celebrating the flag raising, and by the 1960s avoided that altogether. He fulfilled his life-long dream by buying and managing his own funeral parlor, but was tormented by memories of the war; Betty says he wept in his sleep for several years and kept a large knife in a dresser drawer for "protection". He also had many flashbacks of his best war pal Iggy, who was captured and tortured by Japanese soldiers. Bradley never could forgive himself for not being there to try and save his best friend's life.1 He rarely spoke of the raising of the flag, stating once that he "just happened to be there." His son James Bradley (who wrote a book about the flag-raisers in 2000 titled '' Flags Of Our Fathers '') speculated that his father's determined silence and discomfort on the subject of his role in the Battle Of Iwo Jima was largely due to memories of John's best friend, Ralph "Iggy" Ignatowski . In his own words, and only once, he briefly told his son what happened with "Iggy".
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