USS WILLARD KEITH DE-314

WILLARD WOODWARD KEITH, JR

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, April 2016

Willard Woodward Keith, Jr., born on 13 June 1920 in Berkeley, Calif., enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on 18 April 1939 and served as an enlisted man until he received an honorable discharge on 3 November 1940 to take an appointment as 2d lieutenant in the reserves on the following day. Called to active duty on 20 February 1941, he served “stateside” until his unit was transferred to the South Pacific in the spring of 1942 to build up for the first Allied offensive in that theater: Guadalcanal.

Eventually promoted to captain, Keith led Company “G,” 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, from the initial phase of the Guadalcanal campaign. He landed with them at Tulagi on 7 August 1942.

By that autumn, the campaign on Guadalcanal Island was still a hard-fought one. In an offensive aimed against Japanese artillery positions sited beyond the Matanikau River and within range of the important Henderson Field airstrip, the 2d Battalion was assigned the left flank position. Initial elements of the battalion crossed the Matanikau in rubber boats before dawn on 3 November 1942, supported effectively by dive bomber strikes, artillery, and naval gunfire. That afternoon, Capt. Keith led his company against a Japanese strong-point manned by a platoon not only reinforced with heavy machine guns but concealed by heavy jungle growth and entrenched on commanding high ground. Realizing that neither mortar nor artillery fire could reach the Japanese positions, Keith, determined to evict the Japanese, initiated and led successive bayonet and hand grenade charges in the face of heavy fire. Although the Japanese platoon was annihilated,Capt. Keith was struck in the head by a bullet and killed instantly.

While the 1st Marine Division (Reinforced), of which the 2d Battalion, 6th Marines was a part, received the Presidential Unit Citation, Capt. Willard W. Keith, Jr., was awarded a Navy Cross posthumously for a “grim determination and aggressive devotion to duty” in keeping with the “highest traditions of the naval service.”