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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.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Northern Solomon Islands Campaign (1943-44)
From Month/Year
February / 1943
To Month/Year
November / 1944
Description The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, during the first six months of 1942. The Japanese occupied these locations and began the construction of several naval and air bases with the goals of protecting the flank of the Japanese offensive in New Guinea, establishing a security barrier for the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain, and providing bases for interdicting supply lines between the Allied powers of the United States and Australia and New Zealand.
The Allies, in order to defend their communication and supply lines in the South Pacific, supported a counteroffensive in New Guinea, isolated the Japanese base at Rabaul, and counterattacked the Japanese in the Solomons with landings on Guadalcanal (see Guadalcanal Campaign) and small neighboring islands on 7 August 1942. These landings initiated a series of combined-arms battles between the two adversaries, beginning with the Guadalcanal landing and continuing with several battles in the central and northern Solomons, on and around New Georgia Island, and Bougainville Island.
In a campaign of attrition fought on land, on sea, and in the air, the Allies wore the Japanese down, inflicting irreplaceable losses on Japanese military assets. The Allies retook some of the Solomon Islands (although resistance continued until the end of the war), and they also isolated and neutralized some Japanese positions, which were then bypassed. The Solomon Islands campaign then converged with the New Guinea campaign.
