The Veterans Site Greater Good by Dan Doyle.
Died Wednesday, June 29, 2022. Known as a Marine's Marine. Sadly, also, he was the last surviving recipient of the Medal of Honor during World War II.
He was born in 1923 on a dairy farm in Weirton, West Virginia, the youngest of 11 children. When the war started, he tried to join the military, but was first denied because he was too short. That didn't stop him and finally joined the Marine Corps in 1943.
Two years later, he landed in Iwo Jima on February 25, 1945, as a demolitions man with the 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. Two days later he would be in the fight of his life against entrenched Japanese machine gun emplacements that were devastating his unit.
He would go forward to those emplacements armed with a flame thrower and supported by four Marine riflemen, two of whom would be killed in action protecting Woody. Over the next four hours he would attack the machine gun nests, taking them out one by one.
He would go back to the rear several times to get more demolitions and refill the flame thrower. On one occasion, he charged a machine gun bunker, got on top of it, stuck the nozzle of the flame thrower through the portal, and silenced the gun.
For his actions that day, he was awarded the nation's highest military honor, the Medal of Honor.
--GreGen
No comments:
Post a Comment