Yet, with the Great Depression raging, “money was just nonexistent. Each morning, he would bring the cows in from pasture and milk his portion of them by hand. The youngest of 11 siblings, only five of whom reached adulthood, partly due to the devastating 1918 flu pandemic, he recalls attending elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse. He died at age 98 on June 29, 2022.īorn on October 2, 1923, Williams grew up on a dairy farm in the tiny community of Quiet Dell, West Virginia. Williams was the last surviving World War II recipient of the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor. His latest venture was the Hershel Woody Williams Medal of Honor Foundation, a nonprofit that provides scholarships to Gold Star children and facilitates the establishment of Gold Star family memorial monuments. Williams worked with veterans organizations ever since his service, including a 33-year stint with the federal Veterans Administration. Marine Corps.) The right shows Williams saluting during the D-Day ceremony at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, 2011. On the left is President Harry Truman congratulating Hershel “Woody” Williams on being awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the battle of Iwo Jima, 1945. (“I’ll trade you,” one of Williams’ fellow Medal of Honor recipients apparently quipped.) “I was absolutely scared to death,” Williams said of meeting the president. Williams recalled Truman stating at the ceremony that he would rather have this award than be president. military decoration, for “unyielding determination and extraordinary heroism in the face of ruthless enemy resistance.” When World War II concluded, Williams was invited to the White House, where President Harry Truman presented him with the Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. I was just doing my job.” The military, however, felt differently. Thanks in part to Williams’ actions, the Marines renewed their advance and within weeks had taken control of the island.Īt the time, Williams said, “I didn’t think I’d done anything special at all. Williams describes those four hours as somewhat of a blur, though he does vividly recall machine-gun fire ricocheting off the back of his weapon, as well as a pillbox going up in smoke. When a flamethrower ran out of fuel-each lasted for only a few blasts-he would return to American lines to secure a new one and then re-enter the fray. On another occasion, he incinerated a group of Japanese soldiers charging him with bayonets. At one point, he climbed atop one of the dug-in forts and fired through the air vent, killing the Japanese troops inside. Williams selected four Marines to provide cover fire, two of whom wouldn’t survive, and proceeded to singlehandedly take out one concrete pillbox after another over the course of the next four hours. In desperation, a superior officer asked Williams to try his luck with a flamethrower. “As we attacked, they would just mow us down, and we would have to back off,” Williams told HISTORY. His Marine Corps unit had suffered heavy casualties since arriving on the island of Iwo Jima a few days earlier and had now become bogged down under intense machine-gun fire. On February 23, 1945, Hershel “Woody” Williams crawled toward a string of Japanese guard posts with a 70-pound flamethrower strapped to his back.
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