HUNTINGTON — Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed an executive order on Veterans Day to start the process of installing a statue of Hershel “Woody” Williams in the U.S. Capitol to memorialize the Medal of Honor recipient and West Virginia native.

“I can’t think of a better day to honor a true American hero, a proud West Virginian and a man whose courage has inspired our nation even today,” Morrisey said Tuesday inside Guyandotte’s VFW Post 1064 in Huntington.

The governor told of the then-U.S. Marine corporal’s sacrifice under enemy fire during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, requiring actions that would earn Williams the Medal of Honor, bestowed by President Harry Truman in October 1945.

Nearly 80 years after the West Virginian was given the highest medal for valor in the armed forces

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