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Willard was credited with serving more consecutive days under constant enemy fire than any chaplain in the history of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
Willard landed with the Marines during the World War II battle at Guadalcanal, and of the eight chaplains who served the Marines there, he was the only survivor. In 1944, he was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Navy's highest honor, for his service with the 2nd Marine division during the 1943 battle at Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands.
After seeking special permission to go ashore with his men, Willard, despite heavy enemy fire, evacuated the wounded and gave spiritual comfort to the dying. He paced the beach in full view, chanting "I'm Chaplain Willard and you can't shoot me!"
Willard, known for holding baptisms and conducting religious classes aboard ship, also received two Presidential citations for meritorious service under fire. In a letter to his family published on Oct. 18, 1942, in the Boston Globe, he wrote about helping doctors at a clinic in the Solomon Islands: "At night I held the dim blue flashlight for them at the operating table, where they removed shrapnel and bullets... I am glad the good Lord could use me in this service, also that He placed me here to preach the gospel, to give out pocket testaments to each man and tell them individually the story of Christ." At Tarawa, those pocket testaments possibly saved lives, they were said to deflect bullets from the bodies of four men who carried them.
During his long career in the ministry, Willard was pastor of Forestdale Baptist Church in Sandwich, Mass.; Federated Church in Kingston, Mass.; Third Baptist Church in Barnstable, Mass.; and First Presbyterian Church in Waltham, Mass. He founded and directed Camp Good News, which still aims to win young people to Christ. The former moderator of the Boston Presbytery, he was also the author of several books, including The Leathernecks Come Through*, which was quoted in Random House's A History of the Marine Corps in World War II. He served for twenty years as a chaplain in the U.S. Naval Reserve, retiring with the rank of commander. He was also assistant to the President of Wheaton College for a few years.
Guadalcanal Campaign (1942-43)/Battle of Tulagi (including First Savo)
From Month/Year
August / 1942
To Month/Year
August / 1942
Description
The Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo was a land battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, between the forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied (mainly United States (U.S.) Marine) ground forces. It took place from 7–9 August 1942 on the Solomon Islands, during the initial Allied landings in the Guadalcanal campaign.
In the battle, U.S. Marines, under the overall command of U.S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift, successfully landed and captured the islands of Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tanambogo among which the Japanese Navy had constructed a naval and seaplane base. The landings were fiercely resisted by the Japanese Navy troops who, outnumbered and outgunned by the Allied forces, fought and died almost to the last man.
At the same time that the landings on Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo were taking place, Allied troops were also landing on nearby Guadalcanal, with the objective of capturing an airfield under construction by Japanese forces. In contrast to the intense fighting on Tulagi and Gavutu, the landings on Guadalcanal were essentially unopposed. The landings on both Tulagi and Guadalcanal initiated the six-month long Guadalcanal campaign and a series of combined-arms battles between Allied and Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands area.
