Who is Ira Hayes from Flags of Our Fathers and what is their importance?

Native American, Ira Hayes, joined the Marines when he was nineteen. He was one of the six men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. Ira made it home from the war but was never able to adjust to civilian life. When he died at the age of thrity-two, he had a rocord of over fifty arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct.