Flamethrower: Iwo Jima Medal of Honor Recipient and U.S. Marine Wood Williams and His Controversial Award, Japan's Holocaust and the Pacific War

Addison, TX: Fidelis Historia, LLC, 2020. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very Good/No DJ present. Format is approximately 7.125 inches by 10.25 inches. Heavy book that will require extra shipping if sent internationally. lvii, [1], 973, [1] pages. Decorative binding, Illustrative endpapers. Illustrations (some in color). Index of Acronyms and Terms. Note to Reader. Bibliography. Endnotes. Index. Forewords by 31st USMC Commandant General Charles C. Krulak, 29th USMC Commandant General Alfred M. Gray, Jr, and USMC General Anthony Charles Zinni. Bryan Mark Rigg (born March 16, 1971) is an American author and speaker. Rigg studied at Phillips Exeter Academy, graduating in 1991 continued on to Yale University, and received his B.A. in 1996. He received a grant from the Henry Fellowship, to continue his studies in Cambridge University, where Rigg earned his doctorate in 2002. He has taught as a lecturer at Southern Methodist University and American Military University. Hershel Woodrow Williams (October 2, 1923 - June 29, 2022) was a United States Marine Corps Reserve warrant officer and United States Department of Veterans Affairs veterans service representative who received the Medal of Honor, the United States military's highest decoration for valor, for heroism above and beyond the call of duty during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. Williams was the last living Medal of Honor recipient from World War II. Standing 5-foot-6, when Williams tried to enlist in the Marine Corps in 1942, he was told he was too short for service. After the height regulations were changed in early 1943, he successfully enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in Charleston, West Virginia, on May 26. In January 1944, he joined Company C, 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division at Guadalcanal. In July and August 1944, he was attached to Headquarters Company and participated in action against the Japanese during the Battle of Guam. In October, he rejoined Company C. Williams' next and final campaign was at the Battle of Iwo Jima, where he distinguished himself with actions "above and beyond the call of duty", for which he would be awarded the Medal of Honor. On February 21, 1945, he landed on the beach with the 1st Battalion, 21st Marines. Williams, by then a corporal, distinguished himself two days later when American tanks, trying to open a lane for the infantry, encountered a network of reinforced concrete pillboxes. Pinned down by machine-gun fire, his company commander asked one of his men to attach a high explosive charge to a pole and, supported by Williams, his flamethrower and several Marine riflemen, shoved the improvised weapon into an opening in the enemy's pillbox. As they fought their way to the pillbox, all of the men, except Williams, became casualties. Undeterred, Williams arrived at the first pillbox, shoved the flamethrower nozzle into the pillbox opening and fired the weapon, killing all of the soldiers inside. He then returned five times to his company area, refueled his weapon, and moved forward to destroy the remaining pillboxes. Covered by only four riflemen, he fought for four hours under intense enemy small-arms fire and repeatedly returned to his own lines to prepare demolition charges and obtain serviced flame throwers. He returned to the front, frequently to the rear of hostile emplacements, to wipe out one position after another. At one point, a wisp of smoke alerted him to the air vent of a Japanese bunker, and he approached close enough to put the nozzle of his flamethrower through the hole, fire and kill the occupants. On another occasion, he was charged by enemy riflemen who attempted to stop him with bayonets; he killed them with a burst of flame from his weapon. Williams said that much of the action "is just a blank. I have no memory." These actions occurred on the same day that two flags were raised on Mount Suribachi, and Williams, about one thousand yards away from the volcano, was able to witness the event. He fought through the remainder of the five-week-long battle, even though he was wounded in the leg on March 6 by fragmentation, for which he was awarded the Purple Heart. In September 1945, he returned to the United States, and on October 1 he joined Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He and thirteen other servicemen were presented the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman on October 5, 1945, at the White House. On October 22, 1945, he was transferred to the Marine Barracks, Naval Training Center Bainbridge, Maryland, for discharge. He was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve on November 6, 1945.