Medal of Honor Recipient Hershel “Woody” Williams Visit
Event Date
09/21/2015
Event Time6:00 pm;
Location
Philadelphia Union League
140 South Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA
American Legion Benjamin Franklin Post hosting meeting with Guest Speaker – Chief Warrant Officer – Hershel Woodrow “Woody” Williams, United States Marine Corps, Retired. The last of two living United States Marine Corps MEDAL OF HONOR recipients of WWII and the last surviving MEDAL OF HONOR recipient from the Battle of Iwo Jima. Required Dress Code: Men – Coat and tie, no jeans or sneakers.
Born in Fairmont, West Virginia, on October 2, 1923, Hershel Williams grew up on a dairy farm. After being turned away once for being too short, he finally was successful and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in Charleston, West Virginia on May 26, 1943.
Shortly thereafter Williams was shipped to Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California for Recruit Training. Upon completion, he was then sent to the Camp Elliott Training Center in San Diego, where he joined the tank training battalion, only the following month to be transferred to the Training Center’s infantry battalion for instruction as a demolition man and in the use of flamethrowers.
Williams, now a Corporal, landed on Iwo Jima February 21, 1945. Two days later on February 23 American tanks were trying to open a lane for the infantry when they encountered a network of reinforced Japanese concrete pillboxes, buried mines, and black volcanic sands. Cpl Williams went forward with his 70-pound flamethrower in an attempt to reduce the devastating machine gun fire from the fortified enemy positions. Covered by only four riflemen, he continued this arduous task for four hours under heavy enemy small-arms fire. On multiple occasions he returned to his own lines to prepare demolition charges and obtain more flamethrowers. Once resupplied, he returned to the front lines to wipe out one enemy pillbox after another. On one of these returns to the point of the spear of the battle, a wisp of smoke alerted him to an air vent of a Japanese bunker. He approached this heavily fortified position close enough to put the nozzle of his flamethrower through the vent, killing ALL the occupants inside.
These actions occurred on the same day as the raising of the U.S. flag on the island’s Mount Suribachi, . . .
In September Cpl Williams returned to the United States and on October 5, 1945 and for having distinguished for his gallantry in fierce battle, Cpl Williams was presented the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman in a ceremony at the White House.
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