PFC Willis Steele Wilson was honored as part of a Purple Hearts Reunited Ceremony this week.
Captain Jessica Jaggars, of the Vermont National Guard, returned Wilson’s Purple Heart Medal during a ceremony on Wednesday at the Duplin County Veterans Museum.
Nelson Carlton, vice president of the museum’s Board of Directors, and museum curator Joe Berne accepted the medal, which will be displayed inside the museum for years to come. Carlton said it was a true privilege, after 74 years, for the medal to return home to Warsaw.
A Duplin native, Wilson was an only child, the son of Willis and Blanche Wilson of Warsaw. He was mortally wounded in April 1945 fighting in the Pacific campaign of WWII. The event honoring him was held on the steps of the museum, with a crowd in attendance.
Established back in 2012, Purple Hearts Reunited has as its mission to return lost or stolen medals to veterans and military families at no cost. The organization spends time researching and locating the original recipient or family and, when possible, conducts a “return ceremony” to reunite the veteran or family with the medal.
In the case that a veteran or family cannot be found, a home of honor is located for the medal, such as a military museum — as was the case with Wilson’s.
According to Berne, Wilson’s family was close, as all were in the early 1900’s in Duplin County. He lived through the Depression Era, and helped support others as best he could. Wilson had a reputation as a happy and likeable young man, and, like most, he heeded the call of his country when America was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941.
The Army was his calling, and Wilson became a machine gunner. He was assigned to Co. I, 3rd BN, 105th Regt, 27th Infantry Division. He found himself fighting in the Pacific Island hopping efforts that was a daily killer to thousands of Americans.
He was in his 38th month of fighting when he was wounded in the battle for the island of Okinawa, April 21, 1945.
He was transported to a Navy Hospital, #111, in the Marianas Islands. His wound was a chest wound that severed his spine, and all that the doctors could do was make him comfortable. On April 26, 1945, five days later, Wilson paid the ultimate sacrifice. Wilson was buried with full military honors in the Military Cemetery #2, on Okinawa.
