While I want everyone to enjoy hot dogs on the grill and a cold one this Memorial Day weekend, it is more important to honor and remember why we are free to.
Here is one hero’s story, out of the countless available, that I am sharing so that we never forget what many have sacrificed to gain and maintain our freedom.This is John Harlan Willis' story and why he is a true hero. - rAveNswAn
Willis The Cat
The Heroic Story of John Harlan Willis
9.8.2018
John Harlan Willis
Pharmacist-mate First Class
Pharmacist
At Volcano Islands
Iwo Jima, Japan
To administer first aid
Saving lives was his plan
He took it to heart
He took it to battle
Even took shrapnel
Seeking no help
Instead released himself
And so took the shrapnel
Back with him to battle
Though February 28, 1945
As good a day as any
Good to be alive
He’d risk his own
To save others’ lives
Fought his way
Through combat
Hand to hand
To reach the front lines
And into a shell-hole
Where he would then stand
Over a fallen soldier
When the ‘s’ was blown away
Leaving them in a hell-hole
It was then John Harlan Willis
Imagined himself a cat
For as Willis the Cat
Nine lives to give
And he’d risk them all
For the soldier to live
Administering plasma
With one hand
While he and the fallen soldier
Still under attack
The other hand busy
Throwing eight grenades back
But the ninth grenade
He had picked up to throw
Went off in his hand
Took his life with the blow
For he was not a cat
With nine lives to live
But he was a hero
With one life to give
And he had
He’d have done it eight more
If he had had nine to live
Not Willis the Cat
But Willis the man
Not nine lives to give
Only one until zero
But give it he did
Not a cat
But a hero
John Harlan Willis - Hero