The attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized Americans and it was people like William
J. Dwyer who responded to fill the ranks of the United States Marine Corps and
Navy, neither of which ever made use or the draft. Five days after the attack,
18-year old Dwyer, an Ardmore native, enlisted in the Marine Corps. His long
journey to the Pacific Theater began at the Paris Island, S.C. recruit training
depot, where he became "Pvt. Dwyer, serial number 341278, sir!" After
boot camp and five months of garrison duty at the Portsmouth, N.H. navy yard
the platoon was off to Camp Elliott, near San Diego. Calif., en route to the
western Pacific. Garrison duty was all spit and polish, but, I enjoyed it,"
he said.
Along the way, he heard the call of the recruiter again. This time the need was for Marine paratrooper replacements according to Dwyer. "We were starved aboard ship, but were told, paratroopers had steaks hanging over the side of their mess gear and there was $50 more a month incentive." After earning his jump wings on New Caledonia. Dwyer travels through the exotic South Pacific in no way resembled the musical with the same name -- New Hebrides, Vella La Vella in the Solomon Islands, where he was awarded the Bronze Star, Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima.
In, 1943 the Corps went to Bougainville, where he was awarded the first of his two Silver Stars. “We landed off destroyers and were on the front lines for Christmas. On January 1, 1944. they sent the army to relieve us on the front lines and we were sent out on patrol and got the hell shot out of us. We went across with 30 men and came back with 18," he said. As a Private First Class, Dwyer went forward, "pulled the squad leader back, but he was dead, and I took over the squad," he said.
Iwo Jima was next on the itinerary, February 19, 1945. "We were the 13th wave to hit the beach and we landed around noon. It was a messy beach covered with dead and wounded - covered with deep black sand halfway up to your knees, you just couldn't run in it," he said. In addition, the Japanese had the beach zeroed in and the casualties were so heavy that Dwyer, now a Corporal, was ranking man in the 46-man platoon.
Dwyer was awarded his second Silver Star on March 1, 1945, crawling 30 yards under machine gun fire to rescue a wounded Marine. Then he and a second grunt worked their way forward and blew up a Japanese pillbox that had troop movements halted. He was wounded on March 4, 1945 and evacuated to Pearl Harbor where Gen Holland "Howlin Mad" Smith presented Purple Hearts to more than 500 men. By the time the war ended, Dwyer's wound had healed and he was able to pull occupation duty from Sasabo and Kyushu in southern Japan to the northern Palau Islands until being discharged as a Sergeant on January 2, 1946.
William J. Dwyer
5th Marine Division
26th Regiment
3rd Battalion
I Company