Jim Sorenson, a Marine depicted as Hayes's best friend, is a fictional composite of other men who raised the flag. The movie was adapted from an article by William Bradford Huie about Hayes.
Hayes is shunned by fellow Marines and mocked as "Chief". All except for one, Jim Sorenson. By chance they are two of the six U.S. servicemen who hoist the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle at Iwo Jima. A photograph of them becomes an iconic image of the war, serving as the basis for a memorial that was installed in Arlington, Virginia. After this action, Sorenson is killed by enemy fire.
A morose and traumatized Hayes returns home, where he is proclaimed a hero and recruited to help sell war bonds to the public. As his depression mounts, Hayes, feeling unworthy of the attention and publicity, takes refuge in whiskey.
Hayes' alcoholism after he leaves the Marine Corps becomes a public scandal. Hayes wishes to be left alone, but a tribal chief implores him to go to Washington, D.C., on his people's behalf to seek political support for an irrigation bill. Not until he attends the dedication of the Marine Corps War Memorial (also called the Iwo Jima Memorial) in Arlington, Virginia on November 10, 1954, does he sober up and pull himself together.
Hayes returns to the reservation, but is deeply disappointed when the tribal council no longer seems to want anything to do with him. He begins drinking again and goes off into the hills, where he dies of exposure to the elements ten years after the Iwo Jima battle. He was 32.