{"id":1532973,"date":"2022-06-29T17:34:42","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T21:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1532973"},"modified":"2022-06-29T17:34:50","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T21:34:50","slug":"rest-in-peace-sir-hershel-woody-williams-the-last-wwii-medal-of-honor-recipient-dies-at-98","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rest-in-peace-sir-hershel-woody-williams-the-last-wwii-medal-of-honor-recipient-dies-at-98\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Rest In Peace, Sir\u2019: Hershel \u2018Woody\u2019 Williams, The Last WWII Medal of Honor Recipient, Dies At 98"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frest-in-peace-sir-hershel-woody-williams-the-last-wwii-medal-of-honor-recipient-dies-at-98%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1532973&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><a href=\"https:\/\/woodywilliams.org\/woody-williams-bio.html\">Hershel W. \u201cWoody\u201d Williams<\/a>, who was the last living World War II Medal of Honor recipient, passed away on Wednesday \u2014 just a few months short of what would have been his 99th birthday.<\/p>\n<p>Williams was born on October 2, 1923, on a West Virginia dairy farm. When World War II began, he served his community by delivering Western Union telegrams \u2014 often informing families that their loved ones had been reported missing or killed in action.<\/p>\n<p>He continued that service by enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, and he served in the Battle of Iwo Jima with the 21st Marines, 3d Marine Division \u2014 where his \u201cvaliant devotion to duty\u201d prompted then-President Harry S. Truman to award him the Congressional Medal of Honor on October 5, 1945.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">An honor of a lifetime to meet WWII hero and Medal of Honor recipient Hershel \u201cWoody\u201d Williams at the groundbreaking of the \u2066<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MohMuseum?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MohMuseum<\/a>\u2069 in March. His foundation confirms he passed away this morning at the age of 98. Rest In Peace, sir. \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/f10YXBEwPX\">pic.twitter.com\/f10YXBEwPX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jaketapper\/status\/1542127501652148226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 29, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The United States Department of Defense shared some of the details of Williams\u2019 exploits on Iwo Jima in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/News\/Feature-Stories\/story\/Article\/2337804\/iwo-jima-medal-of-honor-recipient-recounts-battle-experiences\/\">article<\/a> published in November of 2021.<\/p>\n<p>According to that report, Williams\u2019 unit landed on the island two days after the battle had begun \u2014 but the steep volcanic-sand beaches had made it difficult for the American troops to gain any ground. The Japanese pillboxes \u2014 bunkers \u2014 that dotted the island also complicated progress because even bazooka fire couldn\u2019t penetrate their thick walls. Flamethrowers were the only remaining option \u2014 but those required proximity to the enemy, and a number of the demolitions sergeants were picked off by the Japanese soldiers in the pillboxes before they could get close enough. By February 23, 1945, Williams was the only one left.<\/p>\n<p>He volunteered to continue the mission himself, with four riflemen providing as much cover fire as they could. And in just four hours, Williams was able to take out seven pillboxes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat made a hole big enough that [the company] could go through and get behind any other pillboxes that were in that area,\u201d Williams explained. \u201cOnce you got behind the pillboxes, then we had the advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams\u2019 actions that day earned him the Medal of Honor \u2014 alongside ten other Marines and two sailors who were also honored for their service \u2014 but even then he said that the honor truly belonged to the men who had died protecting him while he completed the mission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis medal doesn\u2019t belong to me. It belongs to them because they gave their lives for me. I was just doing a job that I was trained to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Asked on multiple occasions where he\u2019d found the courage to get through that day, Williams said he\u2019d never really been able to pin down the answer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody has some instinct of bravery. And, as long as they can control the fear, you can be brave. But if fear overtakes you and becomes the dominant instinct, you cannot operate. You cannot operate under fear. Your brain won\u2019t let you,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cI feel that our upbringing had some influence on our bravery because we were taught in the depression years, if you didn\u2019t have it, you had to make it. And the only way you could make it was to work at it. Our upbringing gave us the confidence that developed into bravery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the years after the war, Williams returned to serving Gold Star families \u2014 creating the Woody Williams Foundation in an effort to make sure those families are recognized.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo date, Woody and his foundation are responsible for establishing 103 Gold Star Families Memorial Monuments across the United States with more than 72 additional monuments underway in 50 states and 1 U.S. Territory. The Foundation continues to grow its reach by being involved in multiple initiatives across the country,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/woodywilliams.org\/woody-williams-bio.html\">website states<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we lose our freedom we lose America,\u201d Williams said, adding that freedom and America were always worth fighting for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hershel W. \u201cWoody\u201d Williams, who was the last living World War II Medal of Honor recipient, passed away on Wednesday \u2014 just a few months short of what would have been his 99th birthday. Williams was born on October 2, 1923, on a West Virginia dairy farm. When World War II began, he served his &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":1533018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1532973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1533018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}