Upon completion, he was sent to the Camp Elliott training center in San Diego, where he joined the tank training battalion on August 21, 1943. Williams received his recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California.

After the height regulations were changed in early 1943, he successfully enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in Charleston, West Virginia, on May 26. Standing 5-foot-6, when Williams tried to enlist in the Marine Corps in 1942, he was told he was too short for service.

I want to be in those dress blues.' Aside from the appearance of the uniform, Williams knew nothing of the Marines. I decided I did not want to be in that thing. He disliked the Army's brown wool uniform that he considered '. Williams was drawn to the Marines by their dress blue uniforms that he had seen several men in his community wear. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, he was working in Montana as a Civilian Conservation Corps enrollee. Harr Construction Company of Fairmont, West Virginia and as a taxi driver. Williams worked a series of odd jobs in the area, including as a truck driver for W.S. By the time he was 11, his father had died of a heart attack and several of his siblings had died of a flu pandemic. His mother, Lurenna, decided to name him after the doctor who arrived at their farm several days after his birth. At birth, Williams weighed 3 + 1⁄ 2 pounds and was not expected to live. Williams, the youngest of eleven children, was born and raised on a dairy farm in Quiet Dell, West Virginia, on October 2, 1923. Coolidge on April 6, 2021, Williams is the last living Medal of Honor recipient from World War II. Hershel Woodrow 'Woody' Williams (born October 2, 1923) is a retired United States Marine Corps warrant officer and United States Department of Veterans Affairs veterans service representative who received the United States military's highest decoration for valor-the Medal of Honor-for heroism above and beyond the call of duty during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. Hershel Woody Williams Medal of Honor Foundation 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division

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