PFC Franklin Sousley, USMC KIA March 21, 1945

Place of birth Hilltop, Kentucky
Place of death KIA on Iwo Jima
Allegiance USMC
Rank Private First Class
Unit 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines
Battles/wars Battle of Iwo Jima
Awards Purple Heart

Sousley was born in Hilltop, Kentucky, to parents Duke and Goldie Sousley as the middle child of three sons. When Franklin was three, his five-year-old brother died of appendicitis. Franklin attended a two-room schoolhouse in the nearby town of Elizaville, and another brother, Julian, was born in May of 1933. Just a year later, Franklin's father died of diabetes at age 35. Only nine years of age, Franklin now found himself the man of the family, keeping his mother's spirits up with his sense of humor and easygoing personality.

Sousley received his draft notice at eighteen and decided to become a U.S. Marine. After extensive training, he eventually found himself as part of the U.S. 5th Marine Division landing force in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Together with John Bradley, Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon, Harlon Block, and Michael Strank, he helped raise a replacement flag on Mount Suribachi, immortalized along with the others in Joe Rosenthal's famous photograph.

The importance of the photograph as a propaganda tool was recognized immediately, and word had been sent that Sousley was to be brought back to America for a publicity tour along with John Bradley and Rene Gagnon (at that time Gagnon, under threat from Ira Hayes, had not revealed Hayes' participation in the flagraising). According to Shadow of Suribachi: Raising The Flags on Iwo Jima by Parker Bishop Albee, Jr. and Keller Cushing Freeman, when the word reached Iwo Jima, Sousley was on a dangerous part of the island, and his company commander, Captain Dave Severance, decided it was safer to leave him where he was than attempt an extrication under the conditions.

According to James Bradley's Flags of Our Fathers, on March 21, 1945, PFC Sousley was shot in the back by a Japanese sniper while walking down the middle of an open road on the nearly-secured island. He was nineteen years old. A fellow Marine saw Sousley lying on the ground and asked, "How bad are you hit?" Sousley's reply (and last words) were reportedly, "Not bad, I can't feel a thing." Originally buried on the island of Iwo Jima, his body was reinterred on May 8, 1947, in Elizaville Cemetery, Kentucky.

Portrayal in film
In the 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers, Sousley is portrayed by Joseph Cross.

In the 1961 film The Outsider, Sousley's role in the flagraising is given to a fictional character named James B. Sorenson, played by James Franciscus.

from Wikipedia