Franklin Sousley

Franklin Runyon Sousley (September 19, 1925 – March 21, 1945) was a United States Marine who was killed in action during World War II. He is one of the six men in the famous photograph of United States Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima in World War II.

Early life
Sousley was born in Hill Top, Kentucky, the second child born to Merle Duke Sousley (1899–1934) and Goldie Mitchell (November 9, 1904 – March 14, 1988). When he was two years old, his five-year-old brother, Malcolm Brooks Sousley (November 24, 1923 – May 30, 1928), died due to appendicitis. Franklin attended a two-room schoolhouse in nearby Elizaville, and attended Fleming County High School in nearby Flemingsburg from ninth to twelfth grade. His younger brother Julian was born in May 1933, and his father died due to diabetes complications a year later, at age 35. At only nine years old, Franklin was the sole male-figure in the family, and assisted his mother in raising Julian. Julian died in a car accident on 4 October 1951, at the age of 18. Sousley graduated from Fleming High School in May 1943, and resided in Dayton, Ohio as a worker in a refrigerator factory.

World War II


Sousley received his draft notice, and chose to join the United States Marine Corps on January 5, 1944, and underwent extensive combat training as a member of the Fifth Marine Division.
 * U.S. Marine Corps

Sousley landed on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, and fought in the battle for the capture of the island. Alongside John Bradley, Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon, Harlon Block, and Michael Strank, he raised the second and larger of two American flags at the summit of Mount Suribachi, an image immortalized ever after by Joe Rosenthal's photograph on February 23, 1945.
 * Battle of Iwo Jima

He was to be returned to Washington, D.C. for a War bond tour with the other five flag raisers after the Marines secured the island. According to Shadow of Suribachi: Raising the Flags on Iwo Jima, 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, as he was walking down an open road on the nearly-secured island. A fellow Marine witnessed 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." However, Ron Elliott's From Hilltop to Mountaintop shows an affidavit signed by Rene Gagnon reporting that "Sousley was killed instantly." Originally buried on the island of Iwo Jima, his remains were reinterred on May 8, 1947, in Elizaville Cemetery in Fleming County, Kentucky.
 * Death in battle

Military awards

 * Purple Heart Medal
 * Combat Action Ribbon
 * Presidential Unit Citation with silver 5/16 inch star
 * American Campaign Medal
 * Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with bronze service star
 * World War II Victory Medal.

Memorial
There is a small Franklin Sousley memorial in the Fleming County Public Library, Flemingsburg, Kentucky.

Portrayal in film
In the 1961 film The Outsider, starring Tony Curtis as Ira Hayes, the fictional character James B. Sorenson (Hayes's Marine buddy in the movie), portrayed by James Franciscus, was a composite based primarily on Franklin Sousley.

In the 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers, about the six flag raisers on Iwo Jima, Franklin Sousley was portrayed by Joseph Michael Cross. The film is based on the 2000 book of the same title.