Decorations register · Notice Nearby
No rights-safe contemporary likeness is on file. The record is the decoration and the writing, not an invented face.
Hershel W. Williams
1923–2022
Chief Warrant Officer 4 (retired; wartime Corporal)
Company C, 1st Battalion, 21st Marines, 3d Marine Division (Iwo Jima flame-thrower demolitions, February–March 1945)
Documented decorations
Purple Heart
Marine Corps University History Division biography states he was wounded in action on 6 March 1945 "for which he was awarded the Purple Heart." Do not invent a Bronze Star Medal — campaign bronze service stars are not the Bronze Star Medal.
Public sources
Hershel W. “Woody” Williams’s Purple Heart is named in the Marine Corps History Division’s official Medal of Honor recipient biography. That page states he was wounded in action on March 6, 1945, during the Iwo Jima campaign, and was awarded the Purple Heart for those wounds. This decorations page records the Purple Heart from that Marine Corps account. It will not invent a Bronze Star Medal from campaign-ribbon bronze service stars, and it will not place a Medal of Honor chip on this awards row.
On Iwo Jima in late February 1945, Williams went forward alone with a flame thrower under covering rifle fire to reduce pillboxes that tanks could not clear. That four-hour action is the public Medal of Honor record. The Purple Heart for the March 6 wound is the published decoration name on the History Division page. They are not the same sentence.
He died on June 29, 2022. He is not yet on a war-roll essay. Later Marine Corps Reserve warrant-officer service and VA counseling work are public history. They are not printed here as medals.
This name is not yet on a war-roll essay. The decorations above are the documented public record this register will stand on until that essay is written.
A publisher register — not a verification
This decorations register is publisher-curated from public records — Medal of Honor Society citations, published general orders, and official Army, Navy, and Marine Corps biographies. It is not a verified-veteran product. Notice Nearby does not certify service and does not issue badges.
A paid or unpaid memorial does not enroll anyone here. Checkout, VET50, and a family’s mention of service on an obituary are not applications to this list. We add a name only when a public official source names the decoration.
Claiming a decoration that was not awarded is stolen valor. It is a disrespect to those who earned the medal and, in some cases, a federal crime. This register will not invent an award to fill a page.
These pages are a historical register. They are not Legal Publication, not a newspaper notice, and not proof that a statute was satisfied.