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Who really said it

How Could I Feel Like a Hero When Only Five Men in My Platoon of 45 Survived?

Spoken by Ira Hayes 1923–1955 · Pima Marine, Iwo Jima flag raiser
Verified In copyright

Hayes really said it — but at a rally in Boston, not in the White House. The Boston Daily Globe of 14 May 1945 printed the line in Hy Hurwitz’s report on three Iwo Jima flag raisers, a citation Quote Investigator ↗ had verified on microfilm. The paper’s wording begins “How can I feel like a hero” and ends as a statement, not a question.

Last verified 1 Sep 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Verified quote & credit

“How can I feel like a hero, when only five men in my platoon of 45 survived, when only 27 men in my company of 250 managed to escape death or injury.” Ira Hayes, at a Boston rally, reported by Hy Hurwitz, Boston Daily Globe, 14 May 1945, p. 9. Not, as commonly claimed, said to President Truman at the White House.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Globe Newspaper Co. and its successors (Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC), publisher of the 1945 Boston Daily Globe report). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Ira Hayes — U.S. Marine, Gila River Pima, Iwo Jima flag raiser. Theme: "How Could I Feel Like a Hero When Only Five Men in My Platoon of 45 Survived?". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "How Could I Feel Like a Hero When Only Five Men in My Platoon of 45 Survived?". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where the line was actually said

Article
Hub Throng Thrills 3 Iwo Heroes: Turnout in Rain Inspiring, Say Flag Raisers
Publication
Boston Daily Globe, 14 May 1945, p. 9, col. 7
Reporter
Hy Hurwitz
Speaker
Pfc. Ira Hayes, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines

But these men will never forget their many friends who will never enjoy the fruits of the victory. “How can I feel like a hero,” said Hayes, “when only five men in my platoon of 45 survived, when only 27 men in my company of 250 managed to escape death or injury.” Boston Daily Globe · 14 May 1945

As transcribed by Quote Investigator from microfilm. QI flags one printing error in the original: where this transcription reads “death or injury,” the newspaper text has “of.” The three flag raisers at the rally were Rene Gagnon of Manchester, New Hampshire; Ira “The Chief” Hayes of Bapchule, Arizona; and John Bradley of Appleton, Wisconsin.

Quote Investigator’s investigation, with the 1945 Boston Daily Globe citation

The paper trail

  • 14 May 1945 — the Boston Daily Globe. Hy Hurwitz’s page-9 report on a Boston rally for three Iwo Jima flag raisers carries the line. Quote Investigator ↗ had the citation verified on microfilm by researcher Joel S. Berson, and treats it as the documented appearance of the quotation.
  • 1995 — Shadow of Suribachi. Parker Bishop Albee Jr. and Keller Cushing Freeman’s study of the two flag raisings quotes the words and gives the precise 1945 Globe date; the Praeger edition is catalogued at the Internet Archive ↗.
  • The platoon figure is repeated elsewhere. Hayes was “one of five marines remaining from his original platoon of 45 men, including their corpsmen,” according to Wikipedia’s account of his Iwo Jima service ↗ — though that account descends from Hayes’s own 1945 statements, so it repeats the figure rather than independently checking it. The second half of the quotation — 27 men out of a company of 250 — has no separate corroborating source here.
  • 1999–2005 — the drift. John Updike changed “can” to “could” and set the line beside the 1954 monument dedication; by 2005 a newspaper column had Hayes saying it to President Truman. Both steps are documented at Quote Investigator ↗.
In copyright

The line survives because a reporter wrote it down, so the rights question attaches to his article: Hy Hurwitz’s report in the Boston Daily Globe of 14 May 1945. As a work first published well after 1930 by an identifiable newspaper, it is treated here as in copyright to the Globe and its successors. Hayes’s spoken words have no separate publication of their own, and the renewal status of this particular 1945 issue has not been checked — so the conservative classification stands.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Right man, wrong room

This is an unusual case for a famous-name quotation: the words are genuine and contemporaneously documented. It is the scene that was invented, and a single auxiliary verb that was changed along the way.

President Harry Truman, at the White House Misplaced

A 2005 Long Beach Press-Telegram column framed the line as Hayes’s answer when Truman called him a hero, and that version now dominates retellings. Quote Investigator ↗ found no source placing the words there. The confusion has a real hook: Hayes, Gagnon and Bradley did meet Truman at the White House on 20 April 1945, per Wikipedia’s chronology ↗ — just not to say this.

The 1954 Iwo Jima monument dedication Misplaced

Other accounts move the line to the dedication of the Marine Corps War Memorial on 10 November 1954, where Hayes met President Eisenhower, per Wikipedia ↗. Quote Investigator ↗ suggests these versions may rest on a misreading of John Updike’s 1999 essay — or, in QI’s own hedge, of “some other similarly compact account” — the essay interweaving the quotation, Hayes’s “good buddies” remark and the 1954 ceremony in one compressed paragraph.

“How could I feel like a hero…?” Later variant

The wording that circulates today — “could,” with the numbers spelled out and a question mark at the end — is Updike’s 1999 rendering, not the newspaper’s. The Globe printed “How can I feel like a hero,” and set it as a statement. Both forms are laid side by side at Quote Investigator ↗.

Flags of Our Fathers (2000) Shortened

James Bradley and Ron Powers print a shorter version that keeps only the company arithmetic — 250 buddies, 27 walking off alive — and drops the platoon figures. Quote Investigator ↗ notes the book gives no citation for it; the Bantam edition is catalogued at the Internet Archive ↗.

The words are Hayes’s, and a reporter wrote them down in the spring of 1945 — at a Boston rally, in Hy Hurwitz’s report in the Boston Daily Globe of 14 May 1945, and not to a president in the White House. Quote Investigator ↗

Context

Why he answered with a casualty return

Hayes helped raise the second flag on Mount Suribachi on 23 February 1945 and left the island with his unit on 27 March. Of the 45 men in his original platoon, he was one of five still standing. Within weeks he had been pulled out of the Pacific and sent home to sell war bonds on the Seventh War Loan drive, appearing alongside Rene Gagnon and John Bradley in front of crowds who wanted to call all three of them heroes.

So when a Boston crowd turned out in the rain and a Globe reporter asked how it felt, the answer Hayes gave was not modesty. It was a casualty return, delivered in numbers. What later writers did was move it — first into a tighter narrative that sat the line beside the 1954 monument dedication, and eventually into a White House scene with President Truman that no contemporary source records.

The arithmetic was not rhetoric. His platoon came off Iwo Jima with five men left out of 45.

How the wording drifted, 1945 to 2005

1995 — Shadow of Suribachi. Parker Bishop Albee Jr. and Keller Cushing Freeman quote the line essentially as the Globe printed it and give the precise 1945 newspaper date, framing it as evidence that Hayes genuinely refused the title of hero.

1999 — John Updike. In ‘Descent of an Image’ (More Matter, Knopf), Updike switches “can” to “could”, spells the numbers out in words, and runs the quotation together with Hayes’s “good buddies” remark and the 1954 Iwo Jima monument ceremony. Quote Investigator calls the passage tightly interwoven and suspects it seeded the later confusion.

2000 — Flags of Our Fathers. James Bradley and Ron Powers give a shorter version that keeps only the company arithmetic — 250 buddies, 27 walking off alive — and drops the platoon figures entirely. Quote Investigator notes the book supplies no citation for its wording.

2005 — the Truman version. A Long Beach Press-Telegram column presented the line as Hayes’s reply when Truman called him a hero. That is the framing that now dominates search results, and it is the one Quote Investigator set out to test — and could not support.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Humility Courage Mortality

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: the full investigationquoteinvestigator.com

The anchor source. Traces the line to the Boston Daily Globe of 14 May 1945 (verified on microfilm), reproduces the 1995, 1999 and 2000 variants, and shows why the White House version does not hold up.
Ira Hayesen.wikipedia.org

Biography and campaign chronology, including the 20 April 1945 White House meeting with Truman, the Seventh War Loan drive, and the statement that Hayes was one of five marines remaining from his original platoon of 45.
Ira Hamilton Hayes — Iwo Jima Flag Raiserusmcmuseum.com

National Museum of the Marine Corps biographical brief: enlistment, Bougainville and Iwo Jima service, the Seventh War Loan Drive, and his death on 24 January 1955.
Shadow of Suribachi (Albee & Freeman, 1995)archive.org

Internet Archive record for the Praeger study of the two Iwo Jima flag raisings — the scholarly work that quotes this line and dates it to the 1945 Boston Daily Globe.
Flags of Our Fathers (Bradley & Powers)archive.org

Internet Archive record for the Bantam edition of the bestseller that carries the shortened, uncited variant of the line — the version most readers met before the film.

About the speaker

Ira Hayes

Ira Hayes

1923–1955 · U.S. Marine, Gila River Pima, Iwo Jima flag raiser

Ira Hamilton Hayes was born on 12 January 1923 in Sacaton, Arizona, an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community, and enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in August 1942 — becoming, by Wikipedia’s account, the first Pima to receive his paratrooper wings. He fought on Bougainville and then on Iwo Jima with Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, and was one of the six men who raised the second flag on Mount Suribachi on 23 February 1945. Fame was the part he could not survive: pulled home to sell war bonds, he spent the next decade refusing the word “hero,” and was found dead near Sacaton on 24 January 1955.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Hy Hurwitz, “Hub Throng Thrills 3 Iwo Heroes: Turnout in Rain Inspiring, Say Flag Raisers,” Boston Daily Globe, May 14, 1945, p. 9, col. 7. Citation located and verified on microfilm as reported in Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: How Could I Feel Like a Hero When Only Five Men in My Platoon of 45 Survived?” (2 September 2010).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘How Could I Feel Like a Hero When Only Five Men in My Platoon of 45 Survived?’?” Last verified 1 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/how-could-i-feel-like-a-hero-when-only-five-men-in-my/

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