Medal of Honor winner escapes haunting images

Medal of Honor winner Hershel "Woody" Williams (l) with fellow veteran Darol "Lefty" Lee (r).

Hershel "Woody" Williams won a Medal of Honor for his actions during World War II.

He took a 70-pound flamethrower to seven Japanese pillbox bunkers on Iwo Jima, clearing them out.

According to an article in the Winona Daily News, the war had a residual effect on Williams:

Williams has no idea how many people he killed that day, but images of the fighting haunted him. In the years that followed the war, he suffered sleepless nights as the medal changed his life’s course.

'I was bothered a bit by the residuals of war,' Williams said.

He had new responsibilities — a new role he didn’t anticipate when he was growing up on a farm in West Virginia.

After years of bitter independence, Williams said God spoke to him in a church in 1962. The dark visions of war dissipated, and he became chaplain for the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, a position he held for 35 years.

Williams is one of 19 Medal of Honor recipients from World War II still living today.