SENDS MEDAL HOME
Lt. Willard Thompson, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Thompson of this city, has sent back to his wife the purple heart medal which was awarded him for wounds suffered Aug. 21, 1944, during a Yank-Jap engagement on Guam. A marine artillery officer, Lieutenant Thompson is believed to be still located on Guam.
Source: Daily Freeman Journal, January 18, 1945
NOTES:
Willard Mead Thompson was born Nov. 10, 1913 to Albert Carl and Ida Schultz Mead Thompson. He died Feb. 7, 2007 and is buried in Veterans Memorial Grove Cemetery, Yountville, CA.
Capt. Thompson served in the Marine Corps from 1942-1946 on Guadalcanal and Guam where he earned a Purple Heart. He was then part of the second wave invasion of Iwo Jima and returned to Guam to learn Japanese in preparation to invade Japan.
Sources: Daily Freeman Journal; ancestry.com
