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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