WALSH, WILLIAM GARY - Medal of Honor Recipient
Rank and organization: Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.
Birth: 7 April 1922, Roxbury, Mass. Accredited to: Massachusetts. Citation:
For extraordinary gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above
and beyond the call of duty as leader of an assault platoon, attached to
Company G, 3d Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against
enemy Japanese forces at Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands on 27 February 1945.
With the advance of his company toward Hill 362 disrupted by vicious machinegun
fire from a forward position which guarded the approaches to this key enemy
stronghold, G/Sgt. Walsh fearlessly charged at the head of his platoon
against the Japanese entrenched on the ridge above him, utterly oblivious
to the unrelenting fury of hostile automatic weapons fire and handgrenades
employed with fanatic desperation to smash his daring assault. Thrown back
by the enemy's savage resistance, he once again led his men in a seemingly
impossible attack up the steep, rocky slope, boldly defiant of the annihilating
streams of bullets which saturated the area. Despite his own casualty losses
and the overwhelming advantage held by the Japanese in superior numbers
and dominant position, he gained the ridge's top only to be subjected to
an intense barrage of handgrenades thrown by the remaining Japanese staging
a suicidal last stand on the reverse slope. When 1 of the grenades fell
in the midst of his surviving men, huddled together in a small trench,
G/Sgt. Walsh, in a final valiant act of complete self-sacrifice, instantly
threw himself upon the deadly bomb, absorbing with his own body the full
and terrific force of the explosion. Through his extraordinary initiative
and inspiring valor in the face of almost certain death, he saved his comrades
from injury and possible loss of life and enabled his company to seize
and hold this vital enemy position. He gallantly gave his life for his
country .
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