Summary Part of Iwo Jima week on WW2TV. On the 76th anniversary of the first day of the battle for the hellishly hot and sulfurous, volcanic island of Iwo Jima, Bryan Mark Rigg joins us to talk about Medal of Honor recipient Woody Williams. A few days into the bloody battle, the US Marines were taking a hammering from Japanese soldiers in pillboxes and bunkers who knew that the greatest danger they faced was from a flamethrower - if the Marines could get close enough to use them. Imagine strapping on a highly flammable 70-pound weapon and moving on such a position under fire. Woody Williams did just that against dire odds. He, along with numerous comrades, did it again and again, taking out hundreds of fortifications which had stalled their regiment's advance to secure the islands airfields. Bryan will tell Williams' story objectively, placing it in the context of the broader Pacific theater of WWII. Rigg explores the numerous problems with the conventional narrative to make sense of one of the most extraordinary and controversial Medal of Honor decorations of the war.

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