Veterans Day is a time to remember and honor those who have fought bravely for the rights of our country as well as those who have died in the process.<\/p>\n
At Harding, there is a Bible professor whose family has been directly affected by a veteran of World War II. Dr. Shawn Daggett never had the chance to meet his uncle John Harlan Willis, an honored war veteran.<\/p>\n
Yet Daggett still knows the story of his uncle by heart.<\/p>\n
At the age of 23, the Columbia, Tenn., native worked as a medic who participated as a Platoon Corpsman in the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945.<\/p>\n
Willis disobeyed his orders to await medical release despite having been severely wounded by shrapnel during a battle.<\/p>\n
He rushed to the aid of an injured soldier, giving him a blood plasma transfusion even though the soldier was at the extreme front near enemy lines.<\/p>\n
While this occurred, a grenade was thrown down into the trench they were occupying. Without hesitation Willis threw the live grenade back at the enemy and resumed his administrations.<\/p>\n
Seven more grenades were thrown down at them; seven more times Willis threw them back.<\/p>\n
It was the ninth grenade that finally killed him, yet he died with it clasped in his hand and with his wounded comrade alive.<\/p>\n
Many other Marines were around them and they witnessed his valor and dedication.<\/p>\n
With renewed vigor they charged the enemy despite being outnumbered and won a battle that was thought to have been a lost cause.<\/p>\n
“He did all that he could to save the lives of the people around him,” Daggett said.<\/p>\n
Selflessly saving the lives of his fellow soldiers made Willis a hero of the country and after his death on Feb. 28, 1945, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n
His wife and 7-month-old son received the award on his behalf.<\/p>\n
His little sister, Lucy Daggett, was 9 years old when she last saw her big brother.<\/p>\n
“I believe I was his favorite little sister,” Lucy said, as she looked at newspaper clippings of her heroic older brother.<\/p>\n
Not only was her elder brother awarded the Medal of Honor, but so was the destroyer escort USS John Willis (DE-1027).<\/p>\n
Willis’ actions in World War II are perhaps best remembered through the last line of the dedication on his Medal of Honor: “He gallantly gave his life for his country.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Veterans Day is a time to remember and honor those who have fought bravely for the rights of our country as well as those who have died in the process.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":590,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[268],"class_list":["post-1948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-hurricane-florence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}