This month marks 83 years since the 2d Marine Division waded ashore at Tarawa. On November 20, 1943, the Marines hit the beaches of Betio, a tiny, heavily fortified island in the Gilbert Islands. Among the first to land was a scout-sniper platoon led by First Lieutenant William Deane Hawkins. This week's American Valor is his story.
Turned away, then a Marine
Hawkins was born in 1914 in Fort Scott, Kansas, and grew up in El Paso, Texas. When he was a baby, a scalding accident left him with lasting scars. After Pearl Harbor he tried to join both the Army and the Navy Air Corps, and both turned him down because of those scars. The Marine Corps took him. He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on January 5, 1942, went through recruit training in San Diego, joined the 2d Marines, 2d Marine Division, and completed Scout Snipers' School at Camp Elliott (Marine Corps History Division).
He shipped out for the Pacific as a private first class and was quickly promoted to corporal and then sergeant. On November 17, 1942, during the Guadalcanal campaign, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the field. He made first lieutenant on June 1, 1943, less than six months before Tarawa (Marine Corps History Division).
First off the boat at the Betio pier
Hawkins commanded the Scout Sniper Platoon attached to the assault regiment. His platoon's job was to clear the long pier that ran out from Betio's shore so the assault waves could get onto the beach. According to his Medal of Honor citation, he was "the first to disembark from the jeep lighter" and "unhesitatingly moved forward under heavy enemy fire at the end of the Betio Pier, neutralizing emplacements in coverage of troops assaulting the main beach positions." Through the rest of that day and night, he "repeatedly risked his life" leading attacks on pillboxes and installations with grenades and demolitions (Medal of Honor citation, CMOHS).
November 21, 1943
At dawn the next morning, Hawkins went back to clearing the narrow beachhead. He personally started an assault on a position held by five enemy machine guns and, "crawling forward in the face of withering fire, boldly fired point-blank into the loopholes and completed the destruction with grenades." He was seriously wounded in the chest during that fight and refused to withdraw. He kept going and destroyed three more pillboxes before he was caught in a burst of shellfire and mortally wounded (Medal of Honor citation, CMOHS).
His citation closes with the line that sums him up: "His relentless fighting spirit in the face of formidable opposition and his exceptionally daring tactics served as an inspiration to his comrades during the most crucial phase of the battle." He was 29 years old (Medal of Honor citation, CMOHS).
Hawkins Field
Hawkins was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented it to his family at the White House in 1944 (Congressional Medal of Honor Society). The airstrip on Betio was named Hawkins Field in his honor. He rests in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii (Marine Corps History Division). His medal is held today by the El Paso County Historical Society, back in the city where he grew up (CMOHS).
Why this story stays with me
Hawkins was a man the other services said no to, and the Marine Corps gave him a chance. He went from private to platoon commander in about a year and then led from the very front, the first man off the boat and the last to quit the fight. Tarawa is one of the battles every Marine hears about early, and names like his are the reason. With the Corps' birthday on November 10 and Veterans Day right after, he's a good one to remember this month.
About the author
Ryan Gunning is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran in Jacksonville, Florida, and the founder of The Calm Seas Project, which takes veterans and first responders out on the water. American Valor posts every Sunday morning.
Sources: Medal of Honor citation (Congressional Medal of Honor Society) · Marine Corps History Division biography · National Medal of Honor Museum · Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipients, World War II
