A Promise Kept
The Last Medal of honor Recipient From
The Battle of Iwo Jima
From CWO4 Hershel“ Woody” Williams
Hershel“ Woody” Williams is the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the Battle of Iwo Jima.
After joining the Civilian Conservation Corps in his home state of West Virginia, Williams enlisted in the Marine Corps and was later assigned to a flamethrower demolition unit.
Following a successful campaign in Guam, Williams, along with the rest of his company moved on to Iwo Jima where his deft work with the flamethrower was relied upon to destroy several Japanese pillboxes; an effort which helped neutralize the Japanese defense.
For his gallantry during the campaign, Williams was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman on October 5, 1945 at the White House.
Williams was interviewed for the WWIIVC & AVC’ s weekly radio series, Veterans Chronicles, at the 2015 Annual Veterans Conference. The following is adapted from that interview.
When Pearl Harbor was hit, I was in the Army-run Civilian Conservation Corps. I had joined the Cs at sixteen because my brother, who had joined before me, was stationed at a nearby CCC camp. I had hoped to join my brother because to my knowledge, they
THE VERY DAY AS THE LEGENDARY FLAG RAISING ATOP MT. SURIBACHI, NOT FAR AWAY WOODY WILLIAMS FOUGHT IN THE ACTION FOR WHICH HE WOULD LATER BE AWARDED THE MEDAL OF HONOR. only had one CCC camp in the whole state. But when I joined, I quickly found out I was going to be sent to Morgantown, West Virginia to another camp for a short time. Before long my entire camp, all 260 of us, were boarded on trains bound for Montana. I was in Montana when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The day after Pearl Harbor, they called us all out and told us that we’ d been bombed and that there was going to be a war. We were offered an opportunity that if we wanted to go directly into the Army and were over 18 years of age, we could enlist. If you were not 18, you had to have parental consent. You could also request a release from the three Cs to join another branch of service.
I wanted to be a Marine. I’ d been influenced by the Marine dress blues back when I was twelve or thirteen years old. I thought that was the most handsome uniform and if I was going to go into the military, I wanted to look like
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