There have been 3,515 Medals of Honor awarded since its inception in the Civil War. All of the recipients were brave men (and one woman). If we were to rank their acts, William Deane Hawkins would be in the top 10%. Hawkins was born on April 9, 1919. At age 3, he accidentally ran into a woman carrying hot water. William was scalded over most of his legs. The doctors wanted to do surgery, but his mother refused. She massaged his crippled legs for over a year until he could walk again. He was a brilliant student and skipped 5th grade. He graduated from high school at age 16. He held a number of jobs before WWII. Although he was against American intervention, he enlisted after Pearl Harbor. The Navy and Army Air Corps turned him down because of his scars, but the Marine Corps accepted him. Good decision. He was sent to Scout Sniper School and joined that elite group. He was quickly promoted to sergeant. By the end of the Battle of Guadalcanal, he was a 2nd Lieutenant and before the invasion of Tarawa, he was a 1st Lieutenant and commander of the Scout Sniper platoon.
Tarawa was an atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Its island of Betio was to be the start of the island-hopping campaign. It would be the first contested landing. On Nov. 21, 1943, he and his men were assigned the job of taking the pier that jutted into the lagoon. He was probably the first Marine ashore. Although slightly wounded by shrapnel on the way in, he did his duty and beyond. The scout snipers quickly cleared the pier and then joined the Marines taking refuge behind the seawall that surrounded the island. At one point, he dueled with Japanese soldiers while standing on top of a moving amtrac (an amphibious tractor that carried 20 Marines to the beach). While most Marines were just trying to survive under the hail of fire, Hawkins and his men crossed the wall and went after the numerous pillboxes that were pinning the invaders down. He took out six pillboxes by himself, sneaking up and firing his machine gun into the firing holes. He used grenades on the seventh, despite being wounded in the shoulder. His commanding officer ordered him to evacuate to the hospital ship, but “Hawk” responded: “I’m not [leaving], sir. I came to kill Japs, not to go home.” He went after an 8th pillbox and in eliminating it, was mortally wounded. He died on Nov. 22, 1943. The airfield on the island was named after him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Hawkins
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/story-of-lt-william-d-hawkins.html?firefox=1
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