Rating: 
Summary: Heroism at it's best!
Review: This is by far the absolute best book I have ever read. Experience what these young men went through and then silently thank them for your freedom. I have always respected veterans, now I respect them even more. This book should be required reading for every high school history class in America. This book will enlighten you as to what the term "sacrifice" really means.
Rating:
Summary: Makes These Boys Real!
Review: Tear-your-heart-out battle story that transforms the image of these war-hardened soldiers to one of terrified young boys who were sent there by their country, yes; but were fighting only to save their own tortured lives. The story takes down the myth of the photo and statue and replaces it with the reality of the specific human individuals caught up in war's most horrific inevitable consequences. And now what? Bradley has given us the real personalities that are represented by the 35 foot figures of the statue in Washington, figures that represent all marines. They were anonymous men before he told us their stories. But now they can no longer be anonymous. We should all support the author's latest efforts to insist that the U.S. Dept. of Monuments and Memorials now chisel the names of these six individuals onto the base of that great image. They didn't seek attention for their acts when they were living, but their virtue may be lost forever if we don't make every effort to personalize it in the way the book does so very effectively.
Rating:
Summary: Has the attributes of a classic for future generations.
Review: After I read "Flags of Our Fathers", it was my feeling that this book was in the same genre as Stephen Crane's, "The Red Badge of Courage", but more complete. It brought back the bone rattling terror and horror of the battle. These images are still with me as fresh as yesterdays trip to the barbershop. Over 55 years ago, while squatting in a foxhole with my back to Suribachi, the marine in the next foxhole yelled, "someone's put the flag up on the f.....g hill". Sure enough there old glory was waving in the wind. We felt at the time that the battle would soon be over. Only the euphoria was over soon. The battle continued for another month. I found few errors in the book and they were of no consequence to the content of the storyline. For anyone who wishes to get the feel of combat and its terrible effects on the human psyche, this book will help in that understanding.
Rating:
Summary: Required reading for anyone asking for American citizenship
Review: As I sat on the beach in Carlsbad, California reading this book tears streamed down my cheeks. I heard the CH-53s somewhere in the distance. Here I sat on leave from the Pentagon, a Marine for 25 years, feeling so proud to be a Marine. These boys gave their lives so that I could sit here reading this book in peace. I have never felt so proud to be an American and a Marine. I could not see the CH53s, but I could hear them and as I continued to read, I couldn't help thinking the phrase that is posted on the gate to Marine Corps Air Station, New River, North Carolina, "Pardon Our Noise, it's the Sound of Freedom." This book says it all. It should be required reading for anyone asking for American citizenship and for all high school students. These were the heroes of our world; those young boys who gave up their lives on Iwo Jima AND those who fought to save them. Just make sure you keep a box of kleenex nearby...you'll need it.
Rating:
Summary: An ACCURATE reference source for the younger generation
Review: In this day and age of history books being printed with so many errors and placed in schools as a teaching tool, this book has become an addition to my own reference library. Maybe someday a grandchild will learn from it. To 'get to know' even a few of the "everyday" people who gave their youth for our country brings history to life and with it a better understanding of just what it was really all about. Hopefully schools will include it in their library along with all the books that have been recently published!
Rating: 
Summary: Great story, not so great writing
Review: A moving and poignant book that reveals Iwo Jima for the slaughter it was, and how that slaughter left its scars on the survivors that lasted for decades. For some reason, this epic battle has fallen into second place in the public consciousness behind the Normandy invasion, even though it was far more difficult, lengthy and dramatic. With any luck, this book will help bring the same deserved recognition showered on the Normany invaders to the Iwo Jima veterans.Why only four stars? --much of his language is strained and purple, and he tries to build melodrama instead of letting the natural drama of the story take hold. He's also redundant in many places, telling us the same facts or personality traits over and over again, sometimes on facing pages. --factual and stylistic inconsistencies. For instnace, in some places, he says the photographer who took the famous photo is 5' 3'', in other places 5' 5''. He varies in his casualty count of the battle, saying the Japanese lost 21,000 on some pages, 22,000 on others. --he also seems to have an axe to grind against Mary Elson, a Chicago Tribune reporter. I wish he would have left his personal vendettas out. Nevertheless, don't let these stop you from reading this book and learning about a hugely important moment in U.S. history.
Rating:
Summary: Excellently written, well balanced, Great Book
Review: Bradley puts an honest story forward about one of the most moving and famous photographs ever taken. I have, am and will always be moved by this famous photo. Now I know the truth these boy flag-raisers. Stephen Ambrose is one of my favorite historian authors. He endorsed this book. My wife purchased it for me because she saw his endorsement. I say thank you to Mr. Ambrose and my wife. I say thank you to Mr. Bradley for this wonderfully important book. I say thank you to the Marines and other American soldiers who fought in World War II and every conflict America has been involved in. Read this book. It will move you to tears.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Story - I Started to Cry
Review: I read this book during a week long vacation and it far exceeded my expectations. I literally could not put it down. I picked it up when I had only a few extra minutes, just to read a few paragraphs. The story of the men who had the courage to walk onto Iwo Jima and face almost certain death is a piece of history that must never be forgotten. The way Doc Bradley dealt with surviving Iwo Jim after all he witnessed and endured is a great lesson in humility and courage. This book filled me with perspective! Doc Bradley and his fellow Marines were courageous people from a great generation.
Rating:
Summary: A FIVE STAR FLAG FOR FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
Review: This book needs no review, but only the strong recommendation that it become required reading for all high school students. Mr. Bradley not only relates the story of his father and the other five marines who raised the flag on Suribachi; he not only vividly, and honestly, presents the Hell that was Iwo Jima, along with the courage it took to win that island; and he not only tells the tale without bitterness towards the enemy. No, in addition to all these things, Mr. Bradley explains why Tom Brokaw could call these people the "greatest generation." Mr. Bradley subtly shows us the debt we owe to these men and the obligation we have to carry their story into the future. This is a story for all Americans.
Rating:
Summary: A Moving, Impressive and Unforgettable Reading Experience!
Review: Every once in a while, a book comes along that defies easy description, a tome destined to be a smash success and win well deserved praise, precisely because it is written so well, is so accessible and readable, and so memorably ties together several different elements into a storyline that makes perfect sense, tells a wonderful and memorable story in a completely different way, and is also a credible work of descriptive history. This, friends, is such a memorable book. This book works extremely well at several levels. First, it is the first-person story behind one of the most famous battle photographs of world war two, the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima. It proceeds to tell us the poignant story of the six men in the photograph and their families from the families' recollections. It also tells us of the tragedies and later lives of each of the three surviving Marines, only one of whom survived to live what we could describe as a normal life. It also gives us insight into what these men were beyond the headlines, the parades, and the hyperbole, and what participation in the murderous military campaign in the South Pacific and the later hoopla meant to them, their families and to the rest of their lives. Finally, it is an excellent, first-person, man on the ground kind of description of the day to day battle on Iwo Jima, which was much harder fought and much more bloody than even the military expected it would be. One stands in awe of this work based on the simple fact that it has been written fifty years after the fact, and yet is clearly the book one recognizes to be the definitive book on a particular subject. From here on, no one who considers himself or herself a student of the Second World War in the South Pacific against the Japanese can feel fully educated or properly informed about the battle for Iwo Jima and its aftermath until they've read "Flags Of Our Fathers". This is history come alive, made real, relevant, still timely and accessible. This is a book for everyone's history book shelves. Read it now, and savor it forever.
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