A modest hero
Published: September 11, 2006
They say that everybody has a story. Sometimes people have more than one. But unless they tell you, you may never know.
Take William “Bill” Watkins, for instance. His brother-in-law says he was a hero on Iwo Jima back in World War II as a member of the United States Marines.
But Bill likes to talk about the time he ran a punt back against Michigan State for a touchdown. Says he still dreams about it on occasion.
Two notable achievements. But people who know this slightly built Fairmont man today probably are unaware of either of these achievements. They may know he has been retired from Johns Manville for many years, however.
Twenty-nine, in fact. Bill, who is now 84, was able to retire at 55. He and his wife Jean have lived in the upper circle of Garden Village for years. But sadly Jean is now is a patient at St. Barbara’s Nursing Home.
Bill spends much of his time now feeding the bluejays and other birds that frequent his yard, and looking out over the green, green trees from his window. And visiting the nursing home.
But he recalls better days, such as when Jean starred in several of the Fairmont State Masquers Town and Gown summer theater plays — including having the role of “Bloody Mary” in
“South Pacific.”
“That ol’ tent theater was really very nice,” he says. “My wife really enjoyed it.”
He recalls they had met when both were in high school in Delaware, Ohio — many years ago.
“I was in the Marine Corps for three years,” he says. “I was president of the senior class at Ohio Wesleyan University. One of my buddies got called up in 1943. I wrote the Marine Corps and asked if I could go along with him. They said I could.
“My mother was furious. She said I was supposed to lead my class in to graduation, but I’d rather have been down at Parris Island.”
Watkins said he ended up as a Marine paratrooper.
“I went as a replacement to Saipan and Tinian,” he related. “A sniper shot me in Tinian, so I went back to Pearl Harbor on a hospital ship.”
He said he got back just in time to get on his ship and go to Iwo Jima. But he had seen considerable action there. The islands of Saipan and Tinian were not more than half a mile apart.
He remembers being in either the fifth or sixth wave of U.S. troops going into Iwo Jima.
“I went in with 45 men and only 18 were left that night,” he said sadly.
“Just about that time the Japanese came out of those caves and fired a cannon down on the beach and then went back into the cave,” he recalled.
“I was about 400 or 500 yards from Mt. Suribachi,” he says. “That’s where the flag was raised on Iwo Jima. I saw the flag go up.”
The picture of the flag raising on Iwo Jima is one of the most memorable of World War II.
“That was quite an interesting experience,” he said. “I had replacements coming into my platoon that didn’t even have rifles. We had to get rifles off the dead Marines. That’s how bad a shape we were in. There were enough rifles to get from the bodies of dead Marines.”
Watkins was then 22 years old.
He said he received his commission as a second lieutenant at the Quantico Marines base and was shipped over to Maui just in time to take over a rifle platoon.
“When the war ended, we were back in Hawaii. What a happy occasion that was,” he said. “It really was!
“I was a captain when I got out. I had just gotten out of Marine paratrooper camp. They were paying Marine officers $100 extra, but then they broke up the paratroopers.”
Bill Watkins then related “one of the nicest things” about going back to Maui after leaving Iwo Jima.
He said he was taking a shower and he heard a voice say, “you dirty ol’ rat.”
“It was my brother-in-law, Arthur Shenefelt. He had jumped ship and got a flight to Maui just to see me. He almost missed his ship back. That was really something!”
Shenefelt says his brother-in-law is quite modest. He told the Times West Virginian Bill was one of the heroes of World War II. He said he was a great athlete as well.
Meanwhile, Watkins says he still keeps in touch with his first sergeant — Bill “Bull” Haggerty — by telephone.
“He was a typical Marine sergeant — 6-4 and 220 pounds. He wouldn’t take anything from anyone,” Watkins says. “He still lives in the Boston area. I didn’t smoke or drink so I gave him all my smoke and alcohol rations.”
Watkins recalled that he and Haggerty were foxhole mates on Iwo Jima.
“One morning while we were there, it was just dawn, and we both stood up to stretch after being in those fox holes all night … And those foxholes were hot. Old Bull stood up and ‘bang!’ he got hit right through the shoulder. I got him down the ridge where a corpsman could get to him. That was last time I ever saw him, but we still keep in touch.”
Watkins was asked about his athletic career and he immediately related the story about his biggest thrill in sports.
“I was captain of the football team at Ohio Wesleyan,” he said. “My biggest thrill in all the years I played was scoring a touchdown against Michigan State. Our coach was from Canada but he had gone to school at Michigan State before coming to Ohio Wesleyan to coach.
“Michigan State scheduled us as a warm-up before they played Michigan,” he said. “So we loaded up on a bus to go to East Lansing. When we went out on that field in that big stadium, we all wondered, ‘What are we doing here?’”
Watkins said that Michigan state “beat us by about 36-7 but I got the seven. I ran a punt back about 70 yards. I still dream about it every once in a while.
“I ran down the sidelines as fast as I could go. I was only 5-6 and about 130 pounds. That’s what I weigh now.”
He said he was captain of the team, the same honor his father had held at Ohio Wesleyan years earlier.
And his friend — the one he left school and went off to war with?
“I never did see him again, in the war or after the war.”
Watkins worked for Johns Manville for many years, running the sales department here.
“My boss said he had openings in Cincinnati and Fairmont, and I said I would rather go to Fairmont. My territory went from Wheeling to Cumberland and all down around the Virginia-West Virginia border. I had so any good dealer friends.”
They came to Fairmont in the early ’50s and are the parents of four daughters. Shari lives in Wheeling; Wendy in Rockport, Mass.; Debbie in Beckley; and Nancy in Harrisonburg, Va. They have six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
He never regrets the decision to come here.
“I love Fairmont,” he says convincingly. “When we first moved here, we rented a room on Fairmont Avenue. Then we heard about Judge Harper Meredith having a farm on the edge of town. A good friend of mind, Bill Samples, got a hold of Judge Meredith and arranged so we could rent the house. It was wonderful — with four little girls running around and being on a farm. We lived there until we built the house up here.
“We’ve loved it up here … I look out and all I see is green trees, green trees.”
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