Where Are They Buried? (95 page)

Hoover successfully avoided independent investigations of both his and the FBI’s conduct during his tenure. And, upon Hoover’s death, Clyde Tolson, who enjoyed triple duty as the FBI’s second-ranking officer, Hoover’s gay lover, and the primary heir to the Hoover estate, destroyed many of Hoover’s personal files, derailing future attempts at sorting out the truths of the Hoover administration. Congress later enacted legislation requiring Senate confirmation of future FBI directors and limiting their power to ten years.

Hoover died of undiagnosed heart disease at 77, while still in the role of FBI director, and was buried at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
Congressional Cemetery is located at 1801 “E” Street Southeast. That is, it’s located at the intersection of “E” and 18th streets in the southeast quadrant of D.C.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Enter the cemetery, drive straight to the chapel, turn left, then turn left again. After 100 feet, stop. On the left, you won’t miss his grave.

Upon Tolson’s death at 74 in 1975, he was also buried at Congressional Cemetery, just a few yards away from Hoover.

During World War II, the Japanese controlled the tiny South Pacific island of Iwo Jima. But, for its strategic position just 700 miles from Japan’s military-industrial complexes, the island became a vital link in the American military’s “island-hopping” campaign, and, for an invasion of the Japanese mainland to occur, it was imperative that Iwo Jima be wrested from Japanese control.

The Japanese had buttressed the island with hundreds of machine-gun blockhouses and pillboxes and, in an effort to weaken the Japanese position, the United States Navy and Army Air Force subjected the fortifications to a massive, 74-day bombing campaign. Then, on February 19, 1945, American Marines scrambled from their carriers and waded through ankle-deep volcanic ash to establish a beachhead. Although the beaches had been captured after only minor resistance, the Japanese later emerged from underground shelters to unleash extensive firepower and wage one of the war’s fiercest and bloodiest battles.

Four days after storming the beach, a 40-man American combat patrol reached the top of the island’s 550-foot high Mount Suribachi on February 23 and raised there a small United States flag. Later, a larger flag was located, and photographer Joe Rosenthal, recognizing a photographic opportunity, followed its bearer up the hill. As six men struggled on the rugged terrain to raise this larger Stars and Stripes, Rosenthal snapped a picture, perhaps the single most recognizable ever taken, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Although the flag-raising inspired the forces that were still trying to take the island, it could not minimize the heavy casualties suffered and, by March 25, when the clashes finally ended, 5,931 American servicemen lay dead, including three of the six flag-raisers. President Roosevelt ordered the men in the picture be identified, and the three
surviving flag-raisers were called home to make public appearances in connection with the Seventh War Loan Drive.

Starting at the bottom of the flagpole and working upward and left, the six men caught on film are: Corporal Harlan Block, PFC Rene Gagnon, PM2/C John Bradley, Sergeant Michael Strank, PFC Franklin Sousley, and PFC Ira Hayes.

NOVEMBER 6, 1924 – MARCH 1, 1945

Harlan Block graduated from Weslaco High School in 1942 and was drafted into the Marines the following year, where he qualified as a parachutist. After participating in the Bougainville Island campaign, Harlan was among the first of those who stormed Iwo Jima’s beaches. His death, at twenty years old, occurred during an attack on the island’s Nishi Ridge, just six days after the triumphant stand atop Mount Suribachi. Initially buried in the Marine Cemetery on Iwo Jima, his body was later returned to Texas, and he now rests at the Iwo Jima Monument and Museum in Harlingen.

DIRECTIONS TO HARLAN BLOCK’S GRAVE:
On the north side of Harlingen, take the Primera Road exit off of Route 77 and follow Route 499 east for three miles to a traffic light. Turn left and you won’t miss the enormous Iwo Jima Monument and Museum on your right. Harlan is buried in a private plot right next to the monument.

JULY 10, 1923 – JANUARY 11, 1994

After enlisting in the Navy in 1943, John Bradley attended Field Medical School and was assigned to the 28th Marines in 1944. After the appearances in connection with the loan drive, John returned to action and, after being wounded in March 1945, returned home to Wisconsin, where he ran a funeral home until his death at 70 in 1994. John was buried at the Queen of Peace Cemetery in Antigo, Wisconsin.

DIRECTIONS TO JOHN BRADLEY’S GRAVE:
In Antigo, Wisconsin, Superior Street is the main road that runs north and south through town. Off of Superior, turn east onto 4th Avenue, then bear right at the hospital. After another hundred yards, turn right onto Park Street, which will lead directly into the cemetery. In the left rear of the cemetery is a large mausoleum, and across the drive from it is the proud Bradley stone.

MARCH 7, 1925 – OCTOBER 12, 1979

Rene Gagnon left high school to work in a textile mill near Manchester, New Hampshire, and was inducted into the Marine Corps Reserve in May 1943. After the loan-drive tour, Rene was sent back overseas and he served in China until his 1946 discharge. He returned to New Hampshire and died unexpectedly at 54. Because Rene hadn’t died while on active duty, he didn’t meet Arlington National Cemetery burial requirements, and was interred at the Mount Calvary Mausoleum in Manchester. In 1981, two years after his death, a waiver request was approved and he was moved to Arlington.

DIRECTIONS TO RENE GAGNON’S GRAVE:
Arlington National Cemetery is located on the west side of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. From any of the major highways, you can easily
follow the signs to the visitor parking lots. Once at the cemetery, get a map at the information booth and you can find Rene’s marker at Lot 343 in Section 51, which is adjacent to Arlington’s own bronze sculpture of that Iwo Jima moment.

JANUARY 12, 1923 – JANUARY 24, 1955

Ira Hayes was a Pima Indian on the Gila River Indian Reservation in Arizona, and in 1942 enlisted in the Marines and was assigned to the Parachute Training School. Inordinately shy, he hated the notoriety that the flag raising brought him and even tried to conceal his participation when President Roosevelt ordered the flag-raisers identified. Despite his reluctance, Ira became the best known of the six flag-raisers, as his Native American heritage added a dimension that intrigued an already very interested public. In 1955, suffering from alcoholism at 32, Ira was found dead of exposure near his home. Before he was buried with honors at Arlington National Cemetery, his body lay in state at the Arizona State Capitol and, later, Johnny Cash memorialized him in a song, “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.”

DIRECTIONS TO IRA HAYES’ GRAVE:
Follow the directions to Arlington as described in Rene Gagnon’s profile above and, once there, get a map at the information booth. Ira is buried in Lot 479 of Section 34, which is on the far south of the cemetery, surrounded by Grant and Pershing drives.

SEPTEMBER 19, 1925 – MARCH 21, 1945

After graduating from high school, Kentucky-native Franklin Sousley was drafted into the Marine Corps Reserve in January 1944. Thirteen months later he landed on Iwo Jima, and he was killed on March 21, 1945, during fighting around the island’s Kitano Point. He was only nineteen years old. Initially buried in the Marine Cemetery on Iwo Jima, Franklin was later reinterred at Elizaville Cemetery in Elizaville, Kentucky.

DIRECTIONS TO FRANKLIN SOUSLEY’S GRAVE:
Elizaville is a community so small that it’s not even noted on most Kentucky maps, so if Elizaville isn’t on yours, just head for Flemingsburg instead. From the junction of routes 32, 11, and 57 in Flemingsburg, proceed four miles west on Route 32, then turn south on Route
170, where you’ll see the cemetery on the left. Enter the cemetery at the second entrance, turn right and then left, and then, on the right, is Franklin’s grand monument and grave.

NOVEMBER 10, 1919 – MARCH 1, 1945

At just 25, Michael Strank was the oldest of the six men in the photograph. A Pennsylvania native, Michael worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps, joined the Marines in 1939, and had participated in campaigns on Wallis, Russell, and Bougainville Islands before storming ashore at Iwo Jima. Just six days after his claim to perpetuity atop Mount Suribachi, Michael was killed by enemy artillery fire on March 1, 1945. Initially buried in the Marine Cemetery on Iwo Jima, he was reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery in 1949.

DIRECTIONS TO MICHAEL STRANK’S GRAVE:
Follow the directions to Arlington as described in Rene Gagnon’s profile above and, once there, get a map at the information booth. Michael is buried in Lot 7179 of Section 12, down the hill from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.

MAY 29, 1917 – NOVEMBER 22, 1963

NOVEMBER 20, 1925 – JUNE 6, 1968

JULY 28, 1929 – MAY 19, 1994

The Kennedys are embedded in the American political culture of the past half-century like no other family. The family’s stature is partly due to the immense wealth amassed by patriarch Joe
Kennedy through his banking and shipbuilding ventures, as well as his participation in liquor smuggling during Prohibition. Power seems to follow money and Joe was no exception; he became the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and in 1938 was appointed ambassador to Great Britain. Joe had presidential hopes but, as an outspoken isolationist, that dream died the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

After the war, Joe’s political aspirations were assumed by his second-oldest son, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Besides the fact that John came from a wealthy and prominent family, he was an excellent candidate for other reasons; he was Harvard educated, well spoken, good-looking, and his war record was distinguished by brave leadership. As the commander of the Navy torpedo boat PT-109, John had swam his crewmen to safety after their vessel was rammed by a Japanese destroyer.

In 1946 John was elected Democratic congressman from Boston, and in 1952 he easily advanced to the Senate. The following year John married the elegant Jacqueline Bouvier and, while recovering from back surgery in 1956, wrote
Profiles in Courage
, a study of eight bold political leaders. His book won the Pulitzer Prize. If John had been an excellent candidate before, he was now the perfect one, and a legitimate run for the presidency would shortly commence.

With his brother Robert as campaign manager, in 1960 John F. Kennedy beat Republican nominee Richard M. Nixon in a fantastically close election to become the 35th president of the United States. At 43, he was the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic ever elected to the office. President Kennedy’s inaugural address set a tone of youthful idealism that raised the nation’s hopes: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” he exhorted. With the New Frontier, as his administration called itself, it was apparent that a change had come.

Kennedy’s economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II. He promoted social legislation, including Civil Rights reform, and in forming the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought Americans to the aid of developing nations. In the height of the Cold War period, Kennedy displayed moderation and a firm hand in foreign policy. He accepted responsibility for the Bay of Pigs fiasco and later, at the risk of all-out nuclear war, Kennedy engaged in a showdown with the Soviet Union over its missile installations in Cuba. Attempting to slow the arms race, he negotiated a partial nuclear test-ban treaty with the Soviets in 1963.

Kennedy’s wit and charm earned him tremendous popularity and his entire family captivated America. This was Camelot and
there was magic in the air. The nation’s dashing chief executive gave eloquent speeches while glamorous Jackie sat purposefully beside him in a pillbox hat, hushed and unyieldingly in love. Meanwhile, the first couple’s camera-ready children cavorted through the White House; bookish daughter Caroline rode a pony on the lawn, while her energetic, toddler brother, John Jr., played with toy trucks in his daddy’s Oval Office.

But just after noontime in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, the magic ran out. While Abraham Zapruder rolled tape, three bullets were fired at the presidential motorcade idling slowly along Elm Street and, at 1:00 p.m. at Parkland Memorial Hospital, John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead at age 46.