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