Congressional Medal of Honor recipients. The Medal of Honor, the country's highest military honor, has been awarded to twenty-one Japanese American soldiers—all members of either the 100th Infantry Battalion or the 442nd Regimental Combat Team —for actions during World War II. Only one of these was awarded contemporaneously.
In July 1945, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., who recommended Courtney for the Medal of Honor, wrote to the fallen 29-year-old's parents to express his grief for their loss. "YourHershel Woodrow "Woody" Williams. On Feb. 23, 1945, then-Corporal Hershel "Woody" Williams, a Marine Demolition Operator, confronted a series of camouflaged, reinforced concrete pill boxes lining the outskirts of an airfield that U.S. Marines were trying to take on Iwo Jima. Over the course of four hours, armed with a flamethrower and guarded
Yet, at the time of the U.S. entry into World War II, the Navy was actually issuing two Medals of Honor. One was the traditional medal, based on the 1860s design, for gallantry in line of one’s profession, not necessarily in combat. The other was the “ Tiffany Cross ,” so called because Tiffany and Company of New York City had designed it A World War II fighter ace and Medal of Honor recipient, Col. "Pappy" Boyington (1912-1988) shot down a total of 28 Japanese aircraft during his wartime service. Initially in Army ROTC, he joined the Marine Corps in 1935. In August 1941, however, he resigned his Marine commission in order to join the Flying Tigers (1st American Volunteer Group JKdqO.how many medal of honor recipients in ww2
