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Episode 2589 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about the book about Ira Hayes that was written by a Marine Vietnam Veteran. The featured story comes from the Cherokee Phoenix and is titled: Book looks into the life, struggles of Ira Hamilton Hayes. The story was provided by Stacie Boston, a Multimedia Reporter.

According to Stacie Boston, Cherokee Nation citizen Tom Holm, an author, scholar and Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War worked to shed light on Hayes through his book “Ira Hayes: The Akimel O’odham Warrior, World War II, and the Price of Heroism.”

Ira Hamilton Hayes (January 12, 1923 – January 24, 1955) was an Akimel O’odham Native American and a United States Marine during World War II. Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community, located in Pinal and Maricopa counties in Arizona. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on August 26, 1942, and, after recruit training, volunteered to become a Paramarine. He fought in the Bougainville and Iwo Jima campaigns in the Pacific War.

Holm, originally from Chelsea, Oklahoma, has been writing about Native veterans since the 1970s. He is a professor emeritus of American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. During his career, he has worked with various tribes and even served on the State of Sequoyah commission in the early 2000s. Holm retired in 2009 after serving 30 years at ASU.

According to Holm, “on the day Hayes died he was drinking some cheap wine, which is actually low in alcohol content. And then went out on the desert and died. He actually died of hypothermia. Flat out just went out and went to sleep.”

Listen to episode 2589 and discover more about the book about Ira Hayes that was written by Tom Holm,  a Marine Vietnam Veteran.