Medal of Honor · World War II
Hershel Woodrow Williams
Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps
- Date of Action
- February 23, 1945
- Location
- Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
- Medal Presented
- October 5, 1945
Values Embodied
- Courage
- Commitment
- Sacrifice
Official Citation
This citation is paraphrased from public-domain histories and is pending verbatim verification against the Congressional Medal of Honor Society archive.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as demolition sergeant serving with the 21st Marines, 3d Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 23 February 1945. Quick to volunteer his services when our tanks were maneuvering vainly to open a lane for the infantry through the network of reinforced concrete pillboxes, buried mines, and black volcanic sands, Corporal Williams daringly went forward alone to attempt the reduction of devastating machine-gun fire from the unyielding positions. Covered by only four riflemen, he fought desperately for four hours under terrific enemy small-arms fire and repeatedly returned to his own lines to prepare demolition charges and obtain serviced flamethrowers, struggling back, frequently to the rear of hostile emplacements, to wipe out one position after another.
Biography
Before the War
Hershel “Woody” Williams was born October 2, 1923, on a dairy farm outside Quiet Dell, West Virginia. He was the youngest of eleven children, five of whom died of influenza before he turned six. His father died of a heart attack when Woody was eleven. The Depression years on the farm were hard and close-knit. Woody drove a milk-delivery truck in high school and was working as a Civilian Conservation Corps truck driver when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
He tried to enlist in the Marines and was turned away — at five feet six he was below the Corps’ minimum height. Demand for men grew, the standard was relaxed, and by May 1943 he was in boot camp at San Diego. He trained as a flamethrower operator, a specialty the Marines were developing urgently for the cave-and-bunker fighting they expected in the Pacific.
The Action
On the morning of February 23, 1945 — four days after the landing on Iwo Jima — Corporal Williams’ unit, the 1st Battalion of the 21st Marines, was pinned down in front of a line of reinforced concrete pillboxes. American tanks could find no lane through the minefields and volcanic sand to support the infantry. Williams was asked if he could do anything with his flamethrower.
He moved forward alone, with four riflemen covering him. For the next four hours, repeatedly returning to his own lines to pick up fresh flamethrowers and demolition charges from men who crawled out to meet him, he advanced on pillbox after pillbox. At one point he climbed onto the roof of a bunker and directed the burning napalm stream into its ventilator pipe. When Japanese infantry tried to rush him with bayonets, he burned them down at close range. He destroyed seven pillboxes and opened a lane through which the American line could finally advance. Of the six flamethrower operators who landed with his unit on Iwo Jima, he was the only one to survive.
Above him, that same morning, the second and most famous American flag was raised on Mount Suribachi.
After the War
Williams returned to West Virginia, became a Veterans Affairs counselor for 33 years, and devoted much of his life to the families of fallen service members through the Hershel “Woody” Williams Medal of Honor Foundation, which funds Gold Star Families Memorial Monuments across all 50 states. He was the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the last from World War II, when he died on June 29, 2022, at the age of 98. He is buried at Donel C. Kinnard Memorial State Veterans Cemetery in Institute, West Virginia.