World War II Story Archives - Page 2 of 6 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Us & Them Talks With Medal Of Honor Recipient Woody Williams

Us & Them host Trey Kay honors Veterans Day with a remarkable conversation with the last surviving World War ll U.S. Marine recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Hershel Woodrow “Woody” Williams grew up as a farm kid in the Mountain State and enlisted in the Marine Corps just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He served in the Pacific campaign and fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Williams received the Medal of Honor for fighting against enemy positions to open a lane for infantry soldiers. For four hours under heavy fire, he used a flamethrower against reinforced concrete pillbox defenses.

After leaving active service, Williams created a foundation to honor the families of service people lost in battle and offer scholarships to the children of fallen soldiers.

Williams, who is 98, says his goal is to ride a horse on his 100th birthday.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the CRC Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.

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Trey Kay, host of Us & Them with Hershel Woodrow “Woody” Williams, the last surviving World War ll U.S. Marine recipient of the Medal of Honor. Kay and Williams spoke at TEDx event at Marshall University in March 2020.

World War II Veteran From W.Va. Becomes Oldest Organ Donor

A World War II veteran who passed away recently has proven that it’s possible to keep helping others by giving the gift of life and becoming the oldest recorded organ donor in United States history.

Cecil F. Lockhart of Welch was 95 years old when he passed away May 4 after a short illness. He served his country during World War II and contributed to his community by mining coal for more than 50 years, and his desire to serve others continued when his donated liver aided a 62-year-old woman.

The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) announced Monday that Lockhart’s decision to help others after death made him the oldest recorded organ donor in United States history. This distinction was confirmed by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

Lockhart’s family said he was moved to become an organ donor following the death of his son, Stanley, in 2010, after which Stanley healed the lives of 75 people through tissue donation and restored sight to two others through cornea donation. Cecil Lockhart is survived by Helen Cline Lockhart, his wife of 75 years, his daughter, Sharon White, and his son, Brian Lockhart, as well as three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Bill Davis, who is Sharon White’s husband, said that Lockhart served in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II, and was “on the ground” during the fighting in the Philippines.

Davis told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph that his father-in-law would be “ecstatic” to know that his decision to become an organ donor has helped a person already.

“Cecil was a very caring and giving man,” Davis recalled.

Basically, Lockhart thought that since he would not need his body after passing away, his organs could go on to help people in need. Davis said that he’s an organ donor, too, and it’s something the family is urging other people to consider. Davis brought up the subject during Lockhart’s funeral.

“I asked people to think about becoming an organ donor in his honor and his memory,” Davis stated. “One of the things is you can do good things with your life even after your life is completed.”

Lockhart’s daughter also spoke about her father’s desire to help others.

“He was a generous person when he was alive, and we are filled with pride and hope knowing that, even after a long, happy life, he is able to continue that legacy of generosity,” Sharon White said. “When my brother was a donor after he passed away a few years ago, it helped my dad to heal. And today, knowing his life is continuing through others really is helping us through our grief, too.”

Davis said that Lockhart was the oldest organ donor on record in the United States and as far as the family knew, the oldest internal organ donor in the world. Besides his liver, patches of his skin will be used to help burn victims and repair cleft palates in children. Even if internal organs are not acceptable, people can still donate skin, body fluid, the corneas of their eyes and other organs, he added.

“The liver can last for a long time and Cecil was in good health at 95,” Davis stated. “He didn’t drink and he didn’t smoke, and he ate the things he should eat and his liver was in very good condition from what the surgeons told me.

One surgeon told Davis that the 62-year-old woman could live to become 95, too.

We’re talking about a functioning adult human being, and that’s just amazing to me,” he said.

Both CORE representatives and Lockhart’s family pointed out there is no age limit for becoming an organ donor.

“There’s no reason not to be an organ donor, and he proved that no matter how old you are, you can still be a donor,” Davis stated.

More than 30 percent of all deceased organ donors in the United States since 1988 have been age 50 or older, according to UNOS data. And it’s a trend that’s rising.

So far in 2021, 39 percent of all U.S. deceased organ donors have been age 50 or older, according to UNOS. That is up more than 8 percent from just 20 years ago. Seven percent of deceased organ donors since 1988 have been age 65 or older. In the last 20 years, 17 people over age 90 have died and become organ donors in the United States, with the first instance occurring in 2001.

“It’s really not something that just for the young,” said Katelynn Metz, a CORE media representative.

Donations like the one Lockhart made go on help thousands of people.

“CORE is incredibly proud to have been able to make this historic organ donation possible,” said Susan Stuart, CORE president and CEO. “This landmark in the field of transplantation is just another example of CORE’s pioneering legacy and commitment to innovation, which, over the last 40 years, has given 6,000 people in the United States the opportunity to save more than 15,000 others as organ donors.”

The record-breaking donation in West Virginia took place during Older Americans Month, which is observed in the United States every May to acknowledge the contributions of past and current older persons to the country. UNOS Chief Medical Officer David Klassen said that Cecil Lockhart’s contribution is indeed significant – and one that each and every American has the power to achieve as well by registering as a donor.

“Too often, people mistakenly believe there is an age limit associated with being an organ donor,” said Klassen. “The truth is, no one is ever too old or too young to give the gift of life. Every potential donor is evaluated on a case-by-case basis at the time of their death to determine which organs and tissue are suitable for donation. Cecil’s generous and historic gift is a perfect example of that.”

Lockhart served his country during World War II and continued to serve it by mining the coal needed for America’s industry and power generation, Davis said. He kept helping other people after he passed away, and now his family is urging other people to follow his example.

“I look at it this way,” he added. “Jesus told us ‘What you do for the least of these, you do for Me’ and if I give an organ – a piece of skin, an eye cornea – for another human being, I’m doing what He told us to do.”

“There is a reason that group of people was called ‘The Greatest Generation,’” Davis concluded. “Because he gave and he gave and he gave, and now it’s our turn.”

December 7, 1941: Japan Launches a Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor, Sinks USS West Virginia

In the early morning hours of December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The raid killed more than 2,400 Americans and prompted the United States to enter World War II. Torpedoes and bombs sank four U.S. battleships, including the USS West Virginia, which lost two officers and 103 crew members.

The battleship, which had originally joined the naval fleet in 1923, was a great source of pride for West Virginians. She was raised from the mud of Pearl Harbor and rebuilt in time to serve during the last year of the war. The ship went back to sea in July 1944 and participated in the invasion of the Philippines. At Surigao Strait—the largest naval battle of the war—the West Virginia led the line and was the first American ship to open fire. In September 1945, the West Virginia was in Tokyo Bay for Japan’s official surrender, the only Pearl Harbor survivor present.

World War II marked the end of the battleship era. The West Virginia was decommissioned in 1947 and sold for scrap in 1959.

Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier: October 14, 1947

On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1 rocket airplane dropped from the belly of a B-29 bomber. Seconds later, Yeager entered the history books as the first pilot to break the sound barrier.

By this time, the 24-year-old Lincoln County native was already an aviation legend. During World War II, he had flown 64 combat missions over Europe and, in a single dogfight, had killed 13 Germans. In his eighth mission, he had been shot down over German-occupied France.

After the war, he served in California as a test pilot for high-speed planes. A year after breaking the sound barrier, he visited Charleston and gave the people a show they would never forget. During a boat race on the Kanawha River, he flew his Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jet beneath Charleston’s South Side Bridge.

Yeager retired from the Air Force in 1975 as a brigadier general. Thirty years later, President George W. Bush promoted Yeager to the rank of major general. In 2012, on the 65^th anniversary of his record-setting flight, he again broke the sound barrier—this time, at age 89.

August 10, 1920: Rocket Plane Pilot General 'Pete' Everest Born in Fairmont

General “Pete” Everest was born in Fairmont on August 10, 1920. A pioneer pilot of rocket planes, Everest once earned the nickname of “the fastest man alive.”

During World War II, he first flew in the European Theater, completing 94 combat missions. Everest later flew 67 combat missions in the China-Burma-India region. During this time, he destroyed four Japanese aircraft before being shot down in May 1945.

He spent the last few months of the war as a Japanese prisoner of war.

After the war, he logged more than 10,000 hours in about 170 aircraft types as an Air Force test pilot. Everest piloted both the Bell X-1 and X-2 rocket planes, set an X-1 altitude record, and, in 1953, broke the world speed record of the F-100A at more than 750 miles per hour. In 1956, he flew the X-2 at Mach 3, exceeding 1,900 miles per hour and breaking the record of his rival and fellow West Virginian, Chuck Yeager.

Pete Everest became a brigadier general in 1965 and retired from the Air Force eight years later. He died in Arizona in 2004 at age 84.

May 25, 1903: Philanthropist Bernard McDonough Jr. Born in Texas

Industrialist and philanthropist Bernard McDonough Jr. was born in Texas on May 25, 1903. His Irish immigrant grandfather had previously settled the family in Clarksburg and later in Belpre, Ohio, near Parkersburg. Young Bernard and his sisters returned to their grandmother in Belpre after the death of their mother.

By 1929, McDonough was building gas stations in the Parkersburg area. He expanded his operations during World War II, constructing railroads and entering the marine barge industry.

In the 1950s, McDonough began acquiring other businesses, including Kanawha Sand & Gravel and the O. Ames Company, a Parkersburg tool manufacturer where he’d once worked as a young man for 15 cents an hour. In the 1970s, the McDonough Company reached its peak as a Fortune 500 company, with major operations in footwear, hand tools, and building materials.

As his businesses succeeded, McDonough turned to philanthropy. He made major gifts to Georgetown University and Wheeling College (now Wheeling Jesuit University), among others. Bernard McDonough Jr. died in 1985 at age 82. The Bernard P. McDonough Foundation remains one of the largest private foundations in West Virginia.