LAST SURVIVING WWII MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER CELEBRATED BY FELLOW MARINES
HAGATNA, Guam (July 25, 2022): In this photo by Shaina Marie O’Neal, family members of the late Hershel "Woody" Williams lay a wreath at the new Gold Star Families Memorial Monument during an unveiling ceremony. Williams was the last remaining Medal of Honor recipient from World War II and founder of the Woody Williams Foundation, which honors Gold Star families and servicemembers who lost their lives in the line of duty.
HAGATNA, Guam (July 25, 2022): World War II was carnage on a scale that is unimaginable today, resulting in between 35 and 60 million deaths worldwide. According to the National World War II Museum, fifteen million soldiers were killed and another 25 million wounded and there were an estimated 45 million civilian deaths.
Into this maelstrom stepped Hershel “Woody” Williams, a country boy born on a dairy farm in in rural West Virginia in 1923. The youngest of eleven children, Woody tried to join the United State Marine Corps after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was told he was too short to enlist (he was an imposing 5’6” tall).Woody became a Marine a year later after the height requirement was lowered and he trained as a demolition man and flamethrower operator before shipping out to the Pacific.
After stints at Guadalcanal and Guam, Corporal Williams found himself on the island of Iwo Jima and in the center of one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific war. Assigned to the 21st Marine Regiment, Williams landed on the beach on February 21, 1945, to take part in a battle that cost 7,000 fellow Marines their lives and, of the 21,000 Japanese defenders, only 200 survived.
Accompanying tanks trying to pave a way for the infantry inland, Williams and his mates encountered a network of concrete bunkers or pillboxes as they were called. Pinned down by enemy fire, Williams improvised a way to hoist his flamethrower into openings in these pillboxes killing its occupants. When he and his squad attacked the first objective, all but Williams became casualties. Undeterred, Williams arrived at the first pillbox, shoved his flamethrower nozzle into an opening and fired, killing all Japanese soldiers inside. He returned five times to the rear to refuel his weapon before moving back to the front.
These actions occurred the same day the Marines raised the American flag over Mount Suribachi, and Corporal Williams witnessed the iconic event. When he returned to the states, Corporal Williams was presented the Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman. There were 473 Medal of Honor recipients in World War II, tragically many awarded posthumously.
Woody Williams died recently, June 29, 2022, and he was the last living Marine who fought in World War II to wear the Medal of Honor. The Navy commissioned a ship in his honor, the USS Hershel “Woody” Williams mobile sea base which entered service in 2018.
There are literally thousands of examples of ordinary men like Woody Williams who were capable of extraordinary courage under fire. At Support Our Troops, our mission is to ease the burden on our current active duty deployed military. Please consider showing your support for today’s servicemembers deployed overseas by contributing funds to Support Our Troops’ Patriot Brigade®. Here you will join thousands of patriots who make monthly donations to improve the lives of our servicemembers and their families. Please go to our secure website https://supportourtroops.org/donate to contribute to America’s finest today!