The Native Marine In America’s Most Famous WWII Photograph – And What Happened After He Came Home

The Cash song.

The Tony Curtis film.

The documentaries.

The museum exhibits.

The entries in every significant reference work on World War II.

In 2016, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in Washington, D.C., in 2004, mounted extensive discussions of Native American military service that included Hayes’s story — this time told with more attention to the Akimel O’odham context, to the history of his community, to the dimensions of his experience that earlier tellings had minimized.

The Gila River Indian Community has honored Hayes in various ways over the years.