Marine Corps Service
After Pearl Harbor was attacked, he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on January 5, 1942, and was assigned to the 7th Recruit Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. He had tried unsuccessfully to enter both the Army and the Navy Air Corps, but his scars prevented his being accepted. Now, as a Marine, he joined the 2nd Marines, 2nd Marine Division, completed Scout Snipers' School at Camp Elliott, San Diego, and on July 1, 1942 embarked on board the USS Crescent City for the Pacific area.
A private first class when he went overseas, he was quickly promoted to corporal and then sergeant. On November 17, 1942, he was commissioned a second lieutenant while taking part in the Guadalcanal campaign in the battle for the Solomons. On June 1, 1943, he was promoted to first lieutenant.
Less than six months later, he was killed in action leading a scout-sniper platoon in the attack on Betio Island during the assault on Tarawa. During the two-day assault, 1stLt Hawkins led attacks on pill boxes and installations, personally initiated an assault on a hostile position fortified by five enemy machine guns, refused to withdraw after being seriously wounded and destroyed three more pill boxes before he was mortally wounded on November 21, 1943. For his actions above and beyond the call of duty, 1stLt Hawkins posthumously received the Medal of Honor.
In September 1944, the Medal of Honor was presented to Hawkins' mother by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a White House ceremony.
1stLt Hawkins' remains were eventually interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Read more about this topic: William D. Hawkins
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