But the real version is also the one that actually honors him.

Because honoring Ira Hayes means seeing him whole — not just at the moment of the flag raising, not just as the tragedy after the triumph, but as a specific person with a specific history, living in a specific community, carrying specific things that the photograph never captured and the bond tour never acknowledged and the bronze memorial never contained.

He was Ira Hamilton Hayes.

He was twenty-two years old on February 23, 1945, on top of Mount Suribachi.