Rating: 
Summary: A Most Moving Book
Review: Flags of Our Fathers is the most moving book I have ever read. The story of the six men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima by a son of one them is a great book about those guys who captured Iwo Jima after a 35-day battle which cost the lives of 6,800 Americans including three of the flag raisers. The story tells how The Photograph of the raising affected the lives of the three survivors. The author did not know his father had won the Navy Cross until after his death in 1994. These guys fought that battle and didn't say much about it afterwards. The battle scenes are graphic and make Spielberg's Private Ryan look like a cup of tea. How young guys did what they did in that battle is a mystery to me. It would be difficult to get our young to do the same thing today. I will never view the Marine Memorial in Arlington in quite the same way again. We owe a lot to those Marines.
Rating:
Summary: Very Thought Provoking Book
Review: I just finished Flags of our Fathers and like most others who have read it, am deeply touched by the content. Because the author is the son of the last flag-raiser to have lived makes the book extremely credible and moving. I thought the author did an outstanding job not only in his description of his father but also in his descriptions of the other five flag-raisers. I felt like I really got to know all of them and became a part of their lives. However this book is much more than just a war book about Iwo Jima, it is about how average people are thrown into extraordinary circumstances. I am not one to shed a tear over a book or movie, but chapters 13 and 20 made me misty eyed. Going forward I will cherish this book and be proud to have a copy in my home for people to see. I have read several books on Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge but this book is unique because of the flag-raising icon and what it has come to represent in America. This has caused me to realize what sacrifices, although I will never fully appreciate nor could I, prior generations have made for America and also to try to improve myself each and every day. I hope other people will be affected similarily so that we may become a friendlier and more sensitive society with help from books such as this.
Rating:
Summary: ALL AMERICANS MUST READ THIS BOOK
Review: Mr. James Bradley has achieved success in writing a book of such quality that it is only overshadowed by the subject he writes about. "Flags of Our Fathers" is actually three stories in one.First, it tells of the America of the early 1920s and how families struggled to scratch out a good life in hard times. He does this through the biographies of 6 boys who will grow to be unknown or unwilling American icons. Second, he tells of the ravages of a battle, adding background about the entire World War II, and how horrific war can get. It is an assault on your very understanding of human interaction. Third, Mr. Bradley outlines the aftermath of that kind of experience whether it be the individual, or the need of America to latch onto heroes in return for the pain inflicted on a nation. The history of Americana was a real eye-opener to me. Anyone with an ungrateful modern teen should grab him or her by the neck and cram this book into their hands. It tells of struggle and happiness in simple things. Ironically, these young, fresh faced boys who grew up hard but happy, would end up paying the ultimate price but not before witnesses terrors unimaginable by the average person. It is a study in tragedy. I have been a Marine, enlisted and Officer, for over 13 years and numerous times, I cried unashamedly while reading this book. Mostly during the vivid accounts of the battle and what was expected of these Marines and Sailors. Imagine knowing full well that you would most likely die horribly as you chugged toward an island known to have the most concentrated defenses ever erected by man. Think about running from the sidelines of an open football field toward the other side while every space is filled with machine guns shooting at you. Then imagine you cannot see them to fire back in an attempt to lessen the wall of hot steel pouring at you. Now, if you can, imagine doing that for a month every day while, at night, you must worry about them sneaking up on you and killing you. Throw in that everyone you knew and cared about was either dead or wounded while in the same situation. Mr. Bradley found first-hand accounts of men who listened to enemy soldiers bayoneting American boys whose last screams were: "Mom! Mom! He's killing me! Mom, he's killing me!" He notes that even though the fanatical Japanese, whose belief was that they had to die in battle in order to get into Heaven, were told that the Emperor's name should be on their dying lips. Yet, their last words were always the same as every other man who dies in battle. That word, regardless of what country they are fighting for, inevitably takes some form of: "Mother." After trying to absorb all of this, the author explains in detail the real story behind raising that flag. How uneventful it was and yet how Joe Rosenthal captured a moment that symbolized, by its inspiring appearance, what America needed at the time: knowledge that the national sacrifice made on Iwo was a noble one. But tragically, only three of the six flagraisers would make it off that island and the other trio were subjected to a public hungry for their image. The irony was that they were worshipped for being in that photograph while each one of them had performed unfathomable feats of courage and heroism before and after that moment which they were never recognized. And that, I think, is the crucial concept that embittered these survivors until the end of their lives. In conclusion, this may very well be the best book I have ever read. If I could get America to stop what she is doing and read this from cover to cover, I think that the cohesive bond America had during this time period could make a comeback. I will force this book into the hands of everyone I know and wait to reap the flood of gratitude when they finish it.
Rating:
Summary: Flag's
Review: After this book is read please donate it to your local high school library, this history must be remembered. Better yet, keep your edition and buy another for the school. Every school library in America should have this important volume.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best War books ever written!
Review: Great,great book! I felt like I was on that island 55 years ago the way it was discribed by Bradley.A must read for anyone who wants to feel how it was like to invade an island while being fired upon by an unseen enemy who would not give up. This book is special to me as my father served in the Seebees and was on Iwo Jima building airfields for our planes en route to bombing runs over Japan. Thanks Mister Bradley on a job well done!
Rating:
Summary: Proud to have served
Review: Imagine one day accidentally discovering that, on the death of your father, he had been an unheralded hero, a figure who had written an historical account then buried it in a cardboard carton for almost half-a-century, never once discussing it? James Bradley discovered just that. His late father, John "Doc" Bradley, a former Navy seaman, and serving as corpsman with the Marines throughout World War II, was also the holder of the Navy Cross, second only to The Medal Of Honor. As a former Marine, I randomly picked up this book and started reading it. Assuming it was one more, dryily written war book, I was astonished at the involuntary tears it brought to my eyes as I turned page after page. In less than a week I was done. At its conclusion I could have sworn I had been there. James Bradley had taken me there to witness it, to view the blood drenched beach of "Sulfer Island", and watch the thousands of bodies of young, dead Marines floating in its surf. Not only did he write from his father's point a view, one of the six who raised the flag on Mount Surabachi, but from the point of view of the Japanese commander as well. How could anyone hate an enemy who believed as strongly for what he was determined to die for as did General Kuribayashi and his defending Japanese soldiers? Flags of our Fathers is written as both prideful and tragic account of those 31 days. It also lifts the mythic veil behind the six men who helped raise their flag, how they were selected, their backgrounds and their families, and how each family suffered along with its sons and brothers. And of the young Marines, who on their last night home before being shipped to Iwo, prophesied their own deaths. Any former Marine who wants to become enveloped in the history of the Corps, need only get this book, set everything else aside, and read it from cover to cover. Compared to Saving Private Ryan, Flags Of Our Fathers is an encyclopedic work, the bible of World War II and Iwo Jima. It deserves its own movie.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding Our Fathers
Review: I wept at the conclusion of this book as I have seldom done in my life To me it was a cathartic experience..First understanding the hell of war, then understanding the ordinary circumstance of those who must fight such wars..then on a much deeper level as I considered my own relationship with my father who is very quiet about his experiences on the USS NEvada at Pearl Harbor...Without so much as a word between us I feel closer to him than I would have ever thought possible...and I can now understand his silence in a way not possible before. This is a book for all but if you have a father who fought in war it is a must read....
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT !!
Review: This is without question one of the finest books I have ever read. Flags of our Fathers should be a required read for high school history class. We seem to be losing pride in our country these days, and respect for the men and women who served. This is history at it's best. And if anyone who reads this has served or is currently serving our country, THANK YOU.
Rating:
Summary: Remembering Our Fathers
Review: How many remain of these brave young men who sacrificed their youth to defend our freedom? Daily their numbers diminish and we lose another thread to a bygone era when America was something worth fighting and dying for. Bradley has written a masterpiece, a work that will endure through the ages. He has touched the very heart of our existence and reached into the depths of our souls. I have read hundreds of narratives on WWII, but this one is beyond description. I have never been so moved or touched more profoundly than I have by the story of these six men. I will never again be able to gaze on that Flag raising monument without choking back the tears and remembering 'the boys.' I stand in awe of their bravery and I am humbled by their sacrifice. The men of Iwo Jima, heroes everyone; the living and the dead. They are an eternal testament to the indomitable spirit of American Liberty. Fathers, brothers, sons, and uncles, each the kind of man you could trust your life to. In the pages of Bradley's book you will come to know this generation like never before and you will see an America that once was and perhaps still is, in the hearts of those of us who were born to these unique individuals. I know now why my own father was so silent about the war. He spoke of it much like Doc Bradley, in simple direct terms, obviously disturbed by the inquiry. He certainly never considered himself a hero or anything more than a man who had done his duty like all the rest. And what could he say really? Barely out of puberty and placed into a situation so full of horror that it boggles the mind. But they faced the worst and endured. Then returned home to their families in quiet repose. And so we were born to them, sons and daughters of the baby boom and given the wonderful opportunity to know them as our heroic fathers. So I beseech you now to honor them as well by reading this book. Bradley has captured the true essences of their spirit within its pages. Read and remember your youth.
Rating: 
Summary: The Flogging of Our Fathers
Review: Bradley's conclusions of the "boys" in that picture are maudlin and superficial. "I could tell his character just from the way his hands were positioned on the flagpole". "The Pima Indian is just out of reach but he wanted to help". These are two that stick out. I could reach the alternate conclusion that "in the rush of shells and bullets the sargeant grabbed any old place and hoisted" and "he carried the flagpole most of the way and then left it to the other guys to get it in place". I DO NOT want to minimize the importance and reverance of this heroic effort and Bradley's exhausting search for facts on the "boys" and historical detail of the events in the Pacific War is impressive. But the audiobook I listened to came across as sanctimonious and preachy.
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