It has become one of the most visited memorials in the Washington area.

Ira Hayes attended the dedication ceremony.

Photographs from that day show him standing with other veterans, in a dark suit, looking at the monument that bore his likeness thirty-two feet high.

What he thought about it, in that moment, is not recorded.

He died six weeks later.

Between the end of the bond tour and the dedication of the memorial, Hayes had lived a decade of struggle.

He worked when he could and drank when he couldn’t stop.