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On February 23, 1945, a network of reinforced concrete pillboxes pinned an entire Marine company flat on the black volcanic sand of Iwo Jima. Sherman tanks couldn't break through. Flamethrower tanks couldn't reach them. Five of six men in the demolition team were already dead or wounded.
Corporal Hershel Williams — five-foot-six, once rejected by the Marines for being too short — strapped seventy pounds of pressurized fuel to his back and volunteered to go forward alone.
He had seven seconds of flame per tank, four riflemen for cover, and seven concrete bunkers between his company and their objective. The Japanese targeted flamethrower operators on sight. On Iwo Jima, those men measured survival in minutes, not hours.
The man too short for the Marines was about to do what their tanks could not.
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Corporal Hershel Williams — five-foot-six, once rejected by the Marines for being too short — strapped seventy pounds of pressurized fuel to his back and volunteered to go forward alone.
He had seven seconds of flame per tank, four riflemen for cover, and seven concrete bunkers between his company and their objective. The Japanese targeted flamethrower operators on sight. On Iwo Jima, those men measured survival in minutes, not hours.
The man too short for the Marines was about to do what their tanks could not.
🔔 Subscribe for more untold WW2 stories: https://www.youtube.com/@WWII-Records
👍 Like this video if you learned something new
💬 Have you ever heard of Woody Williams before this video? Tell us in the comments.
#worldwar2 #ww2history #ww2 #ww2records #wwii
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LearningTranscript
00:00At 0815 on February 23, 1945, machine gunfire raked the black volcanic sand of Iwo Jima.
00:08Corporal Herschel Williams pressed flat against it, 70 pounds of pressurized fuel on his back,
00:14rounds splitting the air a foot above his helmet.
00:1721 years old, 5'6", trained on Guadalcanal with a weapon most Marines refused to carry.
00:2421,000 Japanese soldiers were entrenched in 11 miles of concrete tunnels beneath the island.
00:31Four days earlier, 30,000 Marines had stormed the beaches.
00:35By nightfall, 2,400 were dead or wounded.
00:39The black volcanic sand swallowed boots and tank treads.
00:43Men sank knee-deep trying to advance.
00:46Sherman tanks ground to a halt on terraces too steep to climb.
00:50Progress across the island was measured in yards, and every yard cost blood.
00:55Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi had spent 12 months turning 8 square miles of volcanic rock into a fortress.
01:03His engineers poured concrete pillboxes with walls 4 feet thick, connected them through tunnels,
01:09and positioned machine guns in interlocking fields of fire.
01:12Every meter of open ground fell inside overlapping kill zones.
01:16Mortar spotters on Mount Sudirbachi's 550-foot summit called fire onto anything that moved.
01:24The standard American tactic was Sherman tanks against fortified positions.
01:28On Iwo Jima, it failed.
01:30Black sand bogged down 33-ton Shermans.
01:34Buried mines shattered their treads.
01:36When a tank did reach a pillbox, its 75-millimeter gun cracked the concrete but could not collapse the structure.
01:43Japanese gunners inside survived, waited for the tank to roll past, and reopened fire on the infantry behind it.
01:51Eight flamethrower tanks, modified Shermans the Marines called Zippos, had landed on the first day.
01:57The same terrain that stopped regular armor stopped the Zippos.
02:01Volcanic sand, mines, and grades too steep for treads kept them from closing the distance.
02:07That left one weapon, a man with a portable M2-2 flamethrower.
02:13Seven seconds of continuous flame.
02:15Effective range, 20 to 40 meters.
02:18The operator had to cross open ground under direct fire, reach the pillbox, find an aperture, and squeeze the trigger
02:25before those seven seconds ran dry.
02:27The Japanese targeted flamethrower operators on sight.
02:30One round through the pressurized nitrogen tank could rupture it and send the operator flying.
02:36On Iwo Jima, flamethrower men measured their survival in minutes, not hours.
02:41By that morning, the same morning six Marines raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi a thousand yards to the
02:47south,
02:48Williams' company had ground to a complete stop.
02:51A network of mutually supporting pillboxes poured machine gun fire from every angle.
02:57Infantry pinned.
02:58Tanks stuck.
03:00Five members of Williams' six-man demolition team were dead or wounded.
03:04His company commander needed someone to go forward with a flamethrower and burn those positions out one by one.
03:11Williams volunteered.
03:12Two years earlier, a Marine recruiter in West Virginia had looked at Williams, 5'6", a dairy farmer's youngest son
03:20from Quiet Dell, and rejected him.
03:23Too short.
03:24The Corps had a minimum height requirement.
03:26Williams went back to driving taxis and hauling lumber.
03:30In 1943, the Marines lowered the standard.
03:34Williams enlisted the same month.
03:36They trained him at San Diego, shipped him to Guadalcanal, then assigned him to demolitions and flamethrowers with the 21st
03:44Marines, 3rd Marine Division.
03:46He saw his first combat on Guam in the summer of 1944.
03:50Now he was the last flamethrower operator his company had left.
03:54Seven reinforced concrete pillboxes stood between his unit and their objective.
03:59Seven bunkers, four riflemen, one flamethrower operator with seven seconds of fuel.
04:06If you want to know how this ends, please like this video.
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04:12Please subscribe.
04:13Back to Williams.
04:15Williams strapped a fully loaded M2-2 onto his back just before 0900.
04:20Four riflemen stepped forward to cover him.
04:22Between Williams and the first pillbox lay 40 meters of open volcanic sand, zero cover.
04:28A Japanese machine gun crew that had been killing Marines since dawn.
04:32He had seven seconds of flame, six more flamethrowers waiting back at the company line, and four hours of daylight
04:38ahead.
04:39If his fuel reached the firing slit, the men inside would die.
04:43If it fell short, Williams would never make it back to reload.
04:48The M2-2 flamethrower was not a precision weapon.
04:52Two steel cylinders on the operator's back held thickened gasoline, a crude napalm mix of fuel and gel.
04:59A smaller bottle between them contained compressed nitrogen at 300 pounds per square inch.
05:05When the operator squeezed the rear trigger, nitrogen forced fuel through a rubber hose into the flame gun.
05:11A spring-loaded igniter cartridge at the nozzle sparked the stream.
05:15What came out was a rope of burning gel that stuck to concrete, steel, and skin.
05:21It burned at nearly 2,000 degrees.
05:24It consumed all available oxygen inside an enclosed space within seconds.
05:29But the weapon had a critical flaw.
05:31The operator had to be close.
05:33Not 50 meters, not 30.
05:36He needed to reach the aperture of a pillbox.
05:38The narrow firing slit where the machine gun protruded and pushed the nozzle almost inside before pulling the trigger.
05:46At that distance, every Japanese defender behind that slit could see his face.
05:51Williams' four-man cover team consisted of riflemen armed with M1 Garands.
05:56Their job was simple and nearly suicidal.
05:59They would fire at the pillbox apertures to force the Japanese gunners to duck.
06:03Each burst of suppressive fire bought Williams one to two seconds of movement.
06:08He would advance in short rushes, dropping flat between bursts, crawling the final stretch on his stomach with the fuel
06:15tanks grinding against volcanic rock above him.
06:18The terrain offered nothing, no trees, no craters deep enough to shelter a man with twin fuel tanks rising above
06:25his shoulders.
06:26Between the company line and the first Japanese position lay a field of loose black cinder.
06:32It absorbed sound, swallowed footing, and radiated heat that shimmered the air at ground level.
06:38The pillboxes sat in a staggered pattern, each covering the approaches to the others.
06:42Knock out one, and the next had a clear shot at anyone still standing in the open.
06:48Williams could not attack them in a straight line.
06:50He would need to circle wide, approach from the flanks or rear, where the firing slits could not track him,
06:56and find the ventilation pipes or rear openings that every bunker required to prevent its own gun smoke from suffocating
07:02the crew inside.
07:03Each approach meant crossing a different stretch of open ground.
07:07Each return to the company line for a fresh flamethrower meant crossing it again.
07:11The four riflemen spread into a loose arc ahead of him, two positioned on the left, two on the right.
07:16They began firing into the nearest aperture at a cycled rate.
07:20Eight rounds per clip, reload, eight more.
07:23The noise was constant.
07:25Brass casings clinked against the volcanic sand.
07:28Williams rose from the shell crater and ran.
07:31The first ten meters were the worst.
07:33His boots broke through the top crust of cinder and sank three inches with every step.
07:38The fuel tanks shifted on his back, pulling his center of gravity high and rearward.
07:43A burst of machine gun fire kicked sand two feet to his left.
07:46He dropped flat.
07:48The rifleman poured another volley into the slit.
07:51Williams pushed forward on elbows and knees, dragging the flame gun beside him.
07:55At 15 meters, he could see the aperture clearly.
07:58A dark horizontal slot in gray concrete, no wider than a man's forearm.
08:03Muzzle flash flickered inside.
08:05Sand sprayed across his helmet.
08:07He kept crawling.
08:08At 0914, roughly 10 meters from the slit, he rose to one knee, braced the flame gun against his hip,
08:15and aimed the nozzle at the dark opening.
08:17Nitrogen hissed through the valve.
08:19The igniter cartridge cracked.
08:20A jet of burning napalm arced across the remaining distance and hit the concrete face of the pillbox just below
08:27the aperture.
08:28Gel splashed upward, curled over the lip, and poured inside.
08:32The machine gun went silent in under three seconds.
08:35The first pillbox was dead.
08:37It was 0919.
08:39Williams had used nearly a full tank on a single position.
08:42Six remained.
08:43And his cover team had already taken fire from the next emplacement, 80 meters to the northeast.
08:50Williams crawled back to the company line with an empty flamethrower on his back.
08:55The return trip covered the same 40 meters of open ground.
08:58But now, the Japanese knew exactly where he was.
09:02Machine gun fire from the second pillbox tracked his movement.
09:05His cover team shifted fire to the new aperture.
09:08Two of the four riflemen were already bleeding from shrapnel wounds.
09:11They kept shooting.
09:13At the company line, Williams unstrapped the spent M2-2 and grabbed a freshly serviced unit.
09:19A demolition man from another squad had prepared it.
09:23Fuel tanks topped off, nitrogen pressurized, igniter cartridge loaded.
09:28The swap took less than 90 seconds.
09:31Williams buckled the straps, adjusted the hip belt to balance the weight across his shoulders,
09:35and turned back toward the second pillbox.
09:38This one sat 80 meters northeast of the first.
09:41Its firing slit faced south, directly at the route Williams had used minutes earlier.
09:45A frontal approach was suicide.
09:48He needed the blind side.
09:50Williams circled wide to the right, moving in a low crouch across a shallow depression in the volcanic field.
09:56The depression gave him perhaps 18 inches of cover, enough to hide his body,
10:01but not the fuel tanks rising above his back.
10:04He moved fast.
10:05Rifle fire cracked overhead.
10:07His cover team was engaging from a different angle now,
10:10trying to draw the gunner's attention away from Williams' flanking route.
10:13He reached the rear of the second pillbox and found what he was looking for.
10:18A vertical pipe, four inches in diameter, protruding from the concrete roof.
10:23Every Japanese bunker on Iwo Jima needed ventilation.
10:27Gun smoke, carbon monoxide, and heat from sustained firing
10:31would kill the crew faster than any American weapon if the air inside went stagnant.
10:37The vent pipe was the bunker's lung.
10:39At 0941, Williams climbed onto the low concrete roof.
10:43The structure rose barely three feet above ground level.
10:47The Japanese had buried most of it beneath volcanic sand and rubble.
10:50He positioned himself beside the vent pipe, tilted the nozzle downward,
10:54and inserted it directly into the opening.
10:57One squeeze of the trigger sent burning napalm straight into the interior.
11:00The vent pipe became a chimney in reverse.
11:03Flame and superheated gas filled the space below in seconds.
11:08No one inside survived.
11:10Two down, five to go.
11:13Williams slid off the roof and started back for his third flamethrower.
11:16The pattern was establishing itself.
11:19Cross open ground, find the blind spot, burn, return, reload, cross again.
11:25Each round trip cost him roughly 25 minutes, five to reach the position, seconds to fire,
11:33five to return, 90 seconds to swap equipment, and the rest navigating terrain and suppressive fire.
11:39The math was relentless.
11:42Seven pillboxes at this rate met nearly four hours under continuous enemy fire.
11:47The third pillbox sat 40 meters west of the second, dug into a low ridge.
11:52Its aperture covered a wide arc of the company's front.
11:56Williams approached from the left flank this time,
11:59using a shallow fold in the ground that angled toward the position's blind side.
12:04Halfway there, a burst of fire from a position he had not yet identified,
12:09a fourth pillbox, further north, ripped across the sand in front of him.
12:13He dropped flat.
12:15The rounds passed close enough to spray volcanic grit across his face and arms.
12:19His cover team could not suppress two positions simultaneously.
12:24Four riflemen, two of them wounded, could keep one aperture busy.
12:28They could not keep two.
12:30Williams lay motionless in the open.
12:32It was 10.08.
12:34Survivors later estimated he stayed there for nearly two minutes.
12:38The northern pillbox shifted fire toward the riflemen.
12:41The instant its tracers swung away, Williams pushed forward on his elbows,
12:46reached the third bunker's flank, and fired a full burst into the rear opening.
12:51Three bunkers silenced.
12:53Three flamethrowers spent.
12:55His cover team was down to three effective rifles.
12:58Four Japanese positions still poured fire across the company's front,
13:03and Williams was beginning to understand something about the layout.
13:06Each pillbox he destroyed revealed the next one's location by the direction of its fire.
13:13The fourth pillbox was the one that had nearly killed him minutes earlier.
13:17It sat on a slight rise, 70 meters north of the third,
13:22with a firing arc that covered nearly 180 degrees of open ground.
13:27Its machine gun crew had been engaging Marines along the entire company front for hours.
13:32This was the position that had pinned the advance since morning.
13:37Williams collected his fourth flamethrower.
13:39By now, the routine at the company line had its own grim rhythm.
13:44Unstrap, drop the spent unit, grab the fresh one, check the nitrogen gauge,
13:49confirm the igniter cartridge, buckle in, and go.
13:52The men servicing the flamethrowers worked fast.
13:55They knew every minute Williams spent reloading was a minute the company stayed pinned.
14:00The approach to the fourth bunker offered no flanking route.
14:04The rise it sat on gave the Japanese gunners clear sight lines in every direction.
14:09No shallow depressions, no folds in the terrain.
14:13Williams would have to go nearly straight at it.
14:15His three remaining cover riflemen opened fire from different positions this time,
14:20spreading out to create the illusion of a larger force.
14:23Williams moved in short bursts.
14:26Three seconds upright, then flat on the sand, then three more seconds.
14:30Machine gun rounds cut the air at knee height.
14:33The Japanese crew was firing low, trying to catch him in the gaps between rushes.
14:38At roughly 20 meters, Williams found a slight dip in the ground, barely a foot deep,
14:43just enough to shelter behind if he pressed his face into the sand.
14:47He paused there, calculating.
14:49The aperture was narrow, facing him directly.
14:52No vent pipe was visible from his angle.
14:55He would have to put the flame stream straight through the firing slit from the front.
14:59He rose, ran five meters, dropped to one knee, and fired.
15:04The burning gel hit the left edge of the aperture, splashed inward.
15:08A second burst followed immediately.
15:10Williams held the trigger longer than usual,
15:13spending nearly the full tank in two sustained streams.
15:16The machine gun fell silent.
15:19Smoke poured from the slit.
15:21Four down.
15:22Williams turned back toward the company line.
15:25He had been under fire for over two hours.
15:28At 11.06, on the way back, it happened.
15:31Three Japanese riflemen emerged from a concealed position to his right,
15:34a spider hole camouflaged with sand and debris.
15:38They came at him with fixed bayonets.
15:40No warning, no gunfire.
15:42Just three men sprinting across 15 meters of open ground,
15:46with steel blades pointed at a man who could not run.
15:49Williams swung the flame gun and pulled the trigger.
15:52The M2-2 was nearly empty, but enough fuel remained for one short burst.
15:57The stream caught all three soldiers at close range.
16:01The napalm gel ignited their uniforms
16:03and consumed the oxygen around them before they could close the distance.
16:07They fell within five meters of Williams.
16:10He reached the company line,
16:12swapped to his fifth flamethrower, and went back out.
16:15The fifth pillbox sat southeast of the fourth,
16:19partially buried under a mound of volcanic rubble.
16:21Its aperture was barely visible,
16:23a slit no wider than a hand,
16:26angled downward to cover approaching infantry at ground level.
16:30Williams circled to the rear,
16:31located the vent pipe,
16:33and repeated the technique that had worked on the second bunker.
16:35Nozzle into the pipe,
16:37trigger.
16:39Fire poured downward into the sealed space.
16:42Five positions neutralized,
16:44two remained.
16:45Williams had used five of his six flamethrowers.
16:48His cover team was down to two unwounded riflemen.
16:51Other Marines from adjacent squads
16:53had begun watching from shell craters and foxholes
16:56along the company line.
16:58Word was spreading through the battalion
17:00that a single flamethrower operator
17:02was dismantling the Japanese defensive network
17:05one bunker at a time.
17:07It was 11.53,
17:09three hours since Williams first left the company line.
17:12He had one fresh flamethrower left,
17:14and the final two pillboxes
17:16were the deepest in the Japanese network,
17:19the ones every other position
17:20had been built to protect the foes.
17:23Volcanic sand.
17:24The Japanese defensive system on Iwo Jima
17:26relied on one principle,
17:28mutual support.
17:30Each pillbox covered the approaches to its neighbors.
17:33Knock one out,
17:34and the others adjusted fire to compensate.
17:36Knock out two,
17:38and the remaining positions concentrated on a narrower front.
17:41But knock out five,
17:43and the geometry of the entire network collapsed.
17:46Positions that had once been shielded
17:48by overlapping fields of fire
17:50now sat exposed,
17:51their flanks open,
17:53their blind spots uncovered.
17:55Williams' company commander
17:56could see it from the rear.
17:57The pattern of incoming fire had shifted.
18:00Earlier that morning,
18:02machine gun tracers had crisscrossed
18:04the company front from six directions.
18:06Now only two streams remained,
18:08and both came from positions
18:09whose flanks Williams had already stripped bare
18:12by eliminating the bunkers that had protected them.
18:15The sixth pillbox sat 35 meters north
18:18of the 5th,
18:18connected to it by a shallow communications trench.
18:22The trench was partially collapsed.
18:24Days of naval bombardment had caved in sections,
18:26but it still offered the Japanese
18:28a route to reposition between bunkers
18:31without crossing open ground.
18:33Williams could not approach from the trench side.
18:36Anyone moving through that corridor
18:38would be visible to the sixth pillbox crew
18:40at point-blank range.
18:42He collected his sixth and final flamethrower.
18:44The nitrogen bottle hissed
18:46when the valve was tested.
18:48Full pressure.
18:49The igniter cartridge was fresh.
18:51This was the last tank of fuel
18:53his company could provide.
18:55If it ran dry before both remaining positions
18:57were neutralized,
18:59Williams would have to switch to demolition charges,
19:01blocks of TNT on the end of a wooden pole
19:04shoved into an aperture by hand.
19:06The range for that weapon
19:08was measured in inches, not meters.
19:11Williams moved north in a wide arc,
19:13keeping the destroyed fifth pillbox between himself and the sixth.
19:17The smoking ruin of the bunker he had burned minutes earlier served as partial concealment,
19:23not cover, but enough visual obstruction to mask his movement from the gun slit.
19:27He reached the northeast corner of the sixth position,
19:30where the concrete wall met a bank of piled volcanic rock.
19:34No vent pipe was accessible from this angle.
19:37The rear entrance,
19:38a narrow passage the Japanese used for resupply,
19:41was sealed with a steel plate.
19:43Williams pressed the nozzle against the edge of the plate,
19:46where it met the concrete frame.
19:48The gap was barely two inches wide.
19:51He pulled the trigger.
19:52Burning gel forced through the seam,
19:55spraying liquid fire into the interior along the floor.
19:58Screams lasted seconds.
20:00The gun stopped.
20:02Six flamethrowers used.
20:04Six pillboxes destroyed.
20:06One remained.
20:07Williams was out of fuel.
20:09The M2-2 on his back was empty,
20:12but the company demolition supply still held prepared charges.
20:15Cylindrical TNT packs wired to wooden poles,
20:19designed to be inserted into bunker openings and detonated.
20:22At 1222,
20:24Williams unstrapped the spent flamethrower,
20:26grabbed a demolition charge,
20:28and moved toward the seventh position.
20:30This final pillbox was the anchor of the entire network.
20:34It sat deeper than the others,
20:36dug into a natural depression
20:37with reinforced concrete on three sides
20:40and volcanic rock on the fourth.
20:42Its aperture pointed south,
20:44covering the main avenue of approach
20:46that the company needed to advance.
20:49Every pillbox Williams had destroyed that day
20:51had been positioned to protect this one.
20:54Without the surrounding network,
20:56the seventh bunker was alone.
20:58Its flanks were exposed.
21:00Williams approached from the west,
21:02a direction that three hours earlier
21:04would have put him in the crossfire
21:05of at least two other positions.
21:08Now those positions were smoking ruins.
21:10He reached the bunker's blind side,
21:13climbed onto the low roof,
21:14and located the ventilation shaft.
21:16He lowered the demolition charge into the pipe,
21:19released it,
21:20and rolled off the structure.
21:22The detonation blew the concrete roof inward.
21:25Dust and debris erupted from every opening.
21:28The last machine gun on the company's front went silent.
21:31Seven pillboxes,
21:33six flamethrowers,
21:35one demolition charge,
21:37four hours.
21:39Williams walked back to the company line
21:41under his own power.
21:42His uniform was scorched.
21:44His hands were blistered from the heat
21:46of six consecutive flame gun discharges.
21:48Two of his four cover riflemen
21:50had been killed protecting him.
21:52Two of his four cover riflemen
21:54had been killed protecting him.
21:57At 12.31,
21:58the seventh pillbox went silent.
22:01The company's front opened.
22:03Marines who had been pinned flat
22:05behind volcanic ridges
22:06and in shallow craters since dawn
22:08began to move forward.
22:10The lane Williams had burned
22:11through the Japanese defensive network
22:13was narrow,
22:14barely 200 meters wide,
22:16but it was enough.
22:17Infantry poured through the gap
22:19and pushed north
22:20toward the next line of enemy positions.
22:22What one Marine had done on his stomach,
22:24Sherman tanks and naval bombardment
22:26had failed to achieve in four days.
22:29The reinforced concrete network
22:31that had stopped an entire company
22:32was broken.
22:34His company reached its objective
22:35that afternoon
22:36for the first time
22:37since landing on the island.
22:39But Iwo Jima was not finished
22:41with Williams.
22:42The battle lasted 36 days.
22:44Williams fought for 34 of them.
22:46Hundreds more pillboxes,
22:48tunnels,
22:48and fortified caves
22:50lay beyond the seven Williams
22:51had destroyed on February 23rd.
22:54The 3rd Marine Division
22:55pushed north through terrain
22:56that grew worse with every yard.
22:58The volcanic interior
23:00was a maze of ravines,
23:02sulfur vents,
23:02and collapsed tunnels.
23:04Japanese defenders
23:05emerged from underground passages
23:07behind American lines,
23:09attacked,
23:10and disappeared again.
23:11Every night brought infiltration.
23:13Every morning brought
23:15the same grinding advance.
23:1750 meters forward,
23:18dig in,
23:19take fire,
23:20call for flamethrowers
23:21or demolition teams,
23:22repeat.
23:23The same day Williams
23:24burned through seven pillboxes,
23:26Joe Rosenthal photographed
23:27six Marines from Easy Company,
23:2928th Marines,
23:31raising the American flag
23:32on Mount Suribachi.
23:33That image became
23:34the most reproduced photograph
23:36of the war.
23:37But the capture of Suribachi
23:39did not end the battle.
23:40It secured one end of the island,
23:42while the deadliest fighting
23:44still lay ahead in the north.
23:45Before the war ended,
23:47more than 24,000 airmen
23:49would owe their lives
23:50to emergency landings
23:51on the island's
23:52captured airfields.
23:5327 Medals of Honor
23:55were awarded for actions
23:56on Iwo Jima,
23:57more than any other single battle
23:59in American history.
24:0122 went to Marines.
24:03Nearly 7,000 Americans
24:05died on the island.
24:06Another 20,000 were wounded.
24:09Fewer than 220 Japanese defenders
24:11survived to become prisoners.
24:13The rest died in their tunnels,
24:15in their pillboxes,
24:16or in the open ground
24:17between them.
24:18Williams kept fighting
24:19through all of it.
24:20On March 6th,
24:2211 days after his one-man assault
24:24on the pillbox network,
24:25a Japanese mortar round
24:27detonated near his position.
24:28Shrapnel tore into his legs
24:30and body.
24:31Corpsmen evacuated him
24:32to a field hospital
24:33on the beach,
24:34then to a hospital ship offshore.
24:36His war on Iwo Jima was over.
24:38He had spent 34 days
24:40on an island
24:40where the average infantryman's
24:42combat life expectancy
24:43was measured in hours.
24:45Of the more than 300
24:46flamethrower operators
24:48the Marines deployed
24:49on Iwo Jima,
24:50fewer than 20 survived the battle.
24:52Williams had carried
24:53the weapon for 34 days.
24:55The men who replaced
24:56his fallen teammates
24:57carried it for hours,
24:58sometimes minutes,
24:59before they too were hit.
25:01The wounds earned him
25:02a purple heart.
25:03But by the time
25:04he was evacuated,
25:05a different process
25:06had already begun.
25:07Williams' company commander
25:09had filed an eyewitness report
25:10detailing the four-hour assault
25:12on seven pillboxes.
25:14The surviving rifleman
25:15from his cover team
25:16had corroborated every detail.
25:18The report moved up the chain,
25:20battalion, regiment, division,
25:22and at each level,
25:23officers recognized
25:24that what Williams had done
25:26exceeded the threshold
25:27for every decoration
25:28below the highest.
25:29The paperwork
25:30for a Medal of Honor nomination
25:32began working its way
25:33from the 3rd Marine Division
25:34headquarters on Guam
25:36toward Washington.
25:37Williams,
25:38recovering in a hospital bed,
25:39knew nothing about the nomination.
25:41He was not thinking about medals,
25:43he was thinking about
25:44the two riflemen.
25:45Four hours beside him
25:46and he had never learned
25:47their names.
25:48That question,
25:49who were they,
25:50would follow him home
25:51from the Pacific.
25:54Williams was still recovering
25:55from his shrapnel wounds
25:56on Guam
25:57when Japan surrendered
25:58in August 1945.
26:00The invasion of the
26:01Japanese home islands,
26:02the operation his unit
26:03had been training for,
26:05never happened.
26:05Two atomic bombs
26:07ended the war
26:07before the 3rd Marine Division
26:09could be deployed again.
26:10On October 5th, 1945,
26:13Corporal Herschel Williams
26:14stood in the East Room
26:15of the White House.
26:16President Harry Truman
26:17placed the Medal of Honor
26:18around his neck.
26:20Williams was 22 years old.
26:22He was one of only
26:22four recipients from the battle
26:24who were alive
26:25to accept it in person.
26:26The other 18
26:27had been awarded posthumously.
26:2912 days later,
26:30Williams married Ruby Meredith
26:32in West Virginia.
26:33The farm boy from Quietdale
26:35was now the most decorated
26:36living Marine
26:37from the bloodiest battle
26:38in Corps history.
26:40To everyone around him,
26:41Williams looked like a man
26:42who had come home whole.
26:43He held a job.
26:44He showed up.
26:45He said the right things.
26:47No one saw what was underneath.
26:49The recognition
26:50should have been a turning point.
26:51Instead,
26:52it became a weight.
26:53Williams spent the next 17 years
26:55trapped in a cycle
26:56that thousands of returning
26:58veterans experienced,
26:59but few could describe.
27:00He suffered from
27:01what military doctors
27:02now diagnose
27:03as post-traumatic stress disorder,
27:06nightmares,
27:07flashbacks.
27:07For years,
27:08he spent evenings
27:09at the local Veterans
27:10of Foreign Wars post
27:11drinking to keep
27:12the memories quiet.
27:14He could not forgive himself
27:15for the lives
27:16he had taken at close range
27:17with a weapon
27:18that left nothing
27:19recognizable behind.
27:20The killing method
27:21haunted him
27:22as much as the killing itself.
27:24The sound of pressurized nitrogen
27:26hissing through a valve,
27:27a noise identical
27:28to the M2-2
27:30flamethrower's firing mechanism,
27:31could paralyze him
27:33in the middle
27:33of an ordinary day.
27:35The guilt was worse
27:36than the fear.
27:37Every decoration,
27:38every handshake
27:39from a general,
27:40every newspaper headline
27:41reminded him
27:42that he was alive
27:43because other men were not.
27:45He wore the Medal of Honor
27:46to every public event,
27:48but privately,
27:49he carried it
27:50as evidence of a debt
27:51he could never repay.
27:52In 1962,
27:5417 years after Iwo Jima,
27:56Williams experienced
27:57what he later described
27:58as a religious awakening.
28:00He found the Methodist Church
28:01in Huntington, West Virginia,
28:03and for the first time
28:04since the war,
28:05the nightmares stopped.
28:07Faith did not erase
28:08the memories,
28:08it gave him a framework
28:09to carry them.
28:11He later served
28:12as National Chaplain
28:13of the Congressional Medal
28:14of Honor Society
28:14for 35 years.
28:17Williams retired
28:17from the Marine Corps Reserve
28:19in 1969
28:20with the rank
28:21of Chief Warrant Officer 4
28:22after 20 years
28:23of total service.
28:25He spent 33 years
28:26as a Veterans Service Representative
28:28with the Department
28:29of Veterans Affairs,
28:30counseling other
28:31combat veterans
28:32through the same darkness
28:33he had survived.
28:34He understood
28:35what they carried
28:36because he had carried it himself.
28:38The question that had haunted him
28:40since February 23rd, 1945,
28:42the names of the two riflemen
28:44killed while covering his assault,
28:46was eventually answered.
28:48Williams learned their identities
28:49years after the war
28:50through Marine Corps
28:51casualty records.
28:52He never spoke
28:53their names publicly.
28:54But from that point forward,
28:56whenever anyone asked him
28:58about the Medal of Honor,
28:59his answer never changed.
29:00The medal did not belong to him.
29:03He warred for the Marines
29:04who never came home,
29:06especially those two.
29:07He had entered the war
29:08as a man the Marine Corps
29:09did not want.
29:10He left it
29:11as the holder of a distinction
29:13that would grow with time.
29:15Williams would eventually
29:16become the last living
29:17Medal of Honor recipient
29:18from the war.
29:19That fact would not become clear
29:21for decades.
29:22But the road toward it,
29:23through public service,
29:25Gold Star families,
29:26and a nation that slowly
29:28forgot the war he fought,
29:29had already begun.
29:32In 2010,
29:34at the age of 87,
29:36Williams founded
29:37the Herschel Woody Williams
29:38Medal of Honor Foundation.
29:40Its mission was singular,
29:42build memorials
29:43honoring Gold Star families,
29:45the relatives of service members
29:46who had died in combat.
29:48The man who had spent decades
29:49carrying guilt for surviving
29:51when others did not,
29:53now dedicated his remaining years
29:54to ensuring those others
29:56were never forgotten.
29:57By the time of his death,
29:59the Foundation had erected
30:00over 100 Gold Star families
30:02memorial monuments
30:03across the United States,
30:05with dozens more in progress.
30:07In January 2016,
30:09the United States Navy
30:11named Expeditionary
30:12Sea Base Ship 4
30:13the USNS Herschel Woody Williams.
30:16The vessel,
30:17a floating forward staging platform
30:19displacing 90,000 tons,
30:21was commissioned in 2020
30:23at Naval Station Norfolk.
30:25The Marine,
30:26who had been rejected
30:27for being 5 feet 6 inches tall,
30:29now had a warship
30:30bearing his name.
30:32In 2018,
30:34the Veterans Affairs Medical Center
30:35in Huntington, West Virginia,
30:37the same facility
30:38where Williams had counseled
30:39veterans for decades,
30:40was officially renamed
30:42the Herschel Woody Williams
30:435A Medical Center.
30:44That same year,
30:46Williams stood at midfield
30:47in Minneapolis
30:48and tossed the coin
30:49before Super Bowl 52.
30:5214 other Medal of Honor recipients
30:54stood beside him.
30:55The youngest of 11 children
30:57from a dairy farm
30:58in Quiet Dell
30:58was 84 years old,
31:01the Medal of Honor
31:02hanging from his neck
31:03on national television.
31:04In June 2021,
31:07Williams made his final visit
31:08to Marine Corps Recruit Depot
31:10Paris Island, South Carolina.
31:12He wore his dress blues.
31:14He served as honorary official
31:16for a graduation parade
31:17of 350 new Marines.
31:20Among them,
31:21marching in formation,
31:22was Private First Class
31:24Cedar Ross,
31:25his great-grandson.
31:26Ross had earned
31:27a meritorious promotion
31:29during training.
31:30When drill instructors
31:31discovered whose blood
31:32ran in the young recruit,
31:34the chief drill instructor
31:35had told Ross
31:36he would have big shoes to fill.
31:38The shoes belonged to a man
31:39who stood 5'6".
31:41On June 29, 2022,
31:44Herschel Woodrow Williams
31:45died at the medical center
31:46that bore his name.
31:48He was 98 years old.
31:50He was the last surviving
31:51Medal of Honor recipient
31:52from World War II,
31:54the last of 473.
31:57On July 14,
31:58his remains lay in honor
32:00at the United States
32:01Capitol Rotunda.
32:02The Speaker of the House
32:03noted that Williams
32:04had never been the tallest Marine,
32:06but he had been a force of nature.
32:08The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
32:10attended the ceremony.
32:12His father had served
32:13as a Navy corpsman
32:14on Iwo Jima.
32:16Williams was buried
32:17in Huntington, West Virginia.
32:19His Medal of Honor
32:19is displayed
32:20at the Pritzker Military Museum
32:22and Library in Chicago.
32:23The Gold Star monuments
32:25he built
32:26still stand in parks
32:27and veteran cemeteries
32:28across 49 states.
32:30And somewhere
32:31in the Marine Corps
32:32casualty records
32:33from February 1945,
32:35two names remain.
32:37The riflemen
32:38who gave their lives
32:39so that one man
32:40too short for the Corps
32:41could burn seven pillboxes
32:43and open a path
32:44through hell.
32:46Williams wore that medal
32:47for 60 years,
32:48not for himself,
32:50for the men
32:50who never made it
32:51off the island.
32:52If his story matters to you,
32:54hit the like button.
32:56One click tells YouTube
32:57to put this in front of someone
32:58who has never heard his name.
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33:02Every week,
33:04we dig through service records
33:05and military archives
33:06looking for stories
33:07like this one.
33:08Men who carried weapons
33:10half their weight
33:10into places
33:11no tank could reach.
33:13There are more of them
33:14than you think.
33:15Drop a comment
33:16and tell us
33:16where you are watching from.
33:18United States,
33:19United Kingdom,
33:20Canada,
33:21Australia,
33:22somewhere we have
33:23never heard of.
33:24We read every single one.
33:26If someone in your family served,
33:28tell us about them.
33:29That is what this
33:30comment section is for.
33:31William spent his last year's
33:33building monuments
33:34so Gold Star families
33:35would never be forgotten.
33:37The least we can do
33:38is keep his name loud.
33:41Thank you for being here.
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