Standing Beside Greatness: Writer Meets Medal of Honor Legend

As he spoke to the assembled crowd, Williams said that the fact he was standing before them that evening was indeed a “miracle.”

It was a miracle that Woody lived to adulthood, born a three-pound baby in rural West Virginia in 1923.
It was a miracle that he survived his near-suicide mission on Iwo Jima, when two of the four brave Marine riflemen, who provided him covering fire, didn’t return home alive.

Perhaps it was also a miracle that this 89-year old man is still walking among us.

Many of the heroes of Iwo Jima never came home.

Woody Williams remembers them. And the life of this Medal of Honor recipient reminds each of us that we need to remember them as well.

These great Americans unselfishly gave so much to their fellow countrymen, when today, so many Americans are demanding that their fellow countrymen give something to them.

Proverbs 18:16 states: “A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.”

My time as a writer and an author has given me the chance to meet some extraordinary people.

Perhaps none have been greater than Hershel Woodrow Williams.

Image: 37mm Gun fires against cave positions in north face of volcano on Iwo Jima; source: ibiblio.org a collaboration of the centerforthepublicdomain.org; post-work: W.Wolny; Public Domain

Second Image: Medal of honor Recipient Hershel Woodrow Williams and writer R.G. Yoho