Hershel 'Woody' Williams was the last of the 473 American service members who received a Medal of Honor in WWII.
FILE IMAGE - Hershel 'Woody' Williams speaks at the WWII Pacific Theatre Exhibit Opening at the National World War II Museum on Dec. 11, 2015, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Medal of HonorWilliams, 98, was the last of the 473 American service members who received a Medal of Honor in WWII. Williams spent his final days with family at a hospital in his home state of West Virginia.
"Veterans in West Virginia knew him as their advocate through his work as a Veterans Service Representative. Gold Star families knew Woody through his work raising money for scholarships and other programs through the Woody Williams Foundation," they continued. "We, his fellow Medal of Honor Recipients, knew him as our friend and one of our heroes. We will miss him greatly.", received his medal from President Harry Truman for heroism during the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945.
Williams served as a flamethrower on Iwo Jima and is credited with destroying multiple Japanese pillboxes and other gun emplacements while virtually unaided and at great danger to himself. Williams wiped out position after position over the course of four hours, returning to American lines only to refuel his weapon.Williams last appeared in public on Memorial Day, where he participated in a veterans' event in Huntington, West Virginia. He remarked to local media at the time that the event gave him hope for a"I’ve been at this probably 25 to 30 times, but I believe today we had more honor wreaths than we’ve ever had before, and that’s encouraging," Williams told WSAZ.
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