Pharmacist's Mate F.C. John H. Willis - U.S. Navy, Feb 28, 1945

[Louis]

Pharmacist's Mate 1st Class John Harlan Willis was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. He was only 23 years old at the time of his death.

On 3 Dec 1945, at the Secretary of the Navy’s office in Washington, the Willis family was presented the Medal of Honor. Official Navy photographs of the ceremony show Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal presenting the Medal to John Willis’s young wife (Winfrey) and her 7-month old son (John Jr.). They are flanked by a visibly grieving woman (Winfrey’s aunt Mrs. H.A. Morel) and an elderly man (Willis’s grandfather Austin Harlan).