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TAPS
Fading light dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky,
Gleaming bright.
From afar drawing nigh,
Falls the night.
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, From the hills,
From the sky.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.
Then good night, Peaceful night,
Till the light of the dawn
Shineth bright,
God is near, do not fear,
Friend, good night. |
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BORN:
April 07, 1922 at Roxbury, MA
Entered Service in the US
Marine Corps from Massachusetts
Earned the Medal of Honor during World War II For heroism on
February 27, 1945 at Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
DIED: February
27, 1945 at the age of 22
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With the
advance of his company toward Hill 362 at Iwo Jima disrupted by
vicious machinegun fire from a forward position which guarded
the approaches to this key enemy stronghold, Gunnery Sergeant
Walsh fearlessly charged at the head of his platoon against the
Japanese entrenched on the ridge above him, utterly oblivious to
the unrelenting fury of hostile automatic weapons fire and hand
grenades employed with fanatic desperation to smash his daring
assault. Thrown back by the enemy's savage resistance, he again
led his men in a seemingly impossible attack up the steep, rocky
slope, boldly defiant of the annihilating streams of bullets
which saturated the area. Despite his own casualty losses and
the overwhelming advantage held by the Japanese in superior
numbers and dominant position, he gained the ridge's top only to
be subjected to an intense barrage of hand grenades thrown by
the remaining Japanese staging a suicidal last stand on the
reverse slope. When one of the grenades fell in the midst of his
men, huddled together in a small trench, Gunnery Sergeant Walsh,
in a final valiant act of complete self-sacrifice, instantly
threw himself upon the deadly bomb, absorbing with his own body
the full and terrific force of the explosion.
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