Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to say happy birthday to a true American hero, Corporal Hershel ``Woody'' Williams. Woody is one of the last two surviving United States Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipients of World War II and the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the Battle of Iwo Jima. Born on October 2, 1923, Woody Williams grew up on a dairy farm in Fairmont, West Virginia. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in Charleston, West Virginia, on May 26, 1943. Woody completed 2 years of service and was trained to use both tanks and flamethrowers. Williams, a corporal, landed in Iwo Jima in 1945. American tanks were trying to open a lane for the infantry when they encountered a network of reinforced Japanese concrete pillboxes, buried mines, and black volcanic sands. Corporal Williams went forward with his 70-pound flamethrower in an attempt to reduce the devastating machine gun fire from the fortified enemy positions. Covered by only four riflemen, he continued this arduous task for 4 hours under heavy enemy small-arms fire. He resupplied and returned to the front lines time and again to wipe out one enemy pillbox after another. On one of these returns, to the point of the spear of the battle, a wisp of smoke alerted him to an air vent of a Japanese bunker. He approached this heavily fortified position close enough to put the nozzle of his flamethrower through the vent, killing all the occupants inside.…”