Chattooga County, Georgia, will celebrate one of its bravest and best-known citizens Friday for the service he gave to his country.
On Friday, the community Hoyt Williams has called home his entire life will honor him with a medal celebration in Summerville at 2 p.m. at the Chattooga County Memorial Home.
Williams, 96, was sent a military draft letter in February 1943 to fight in World War II. He had recently graduated from high school, become married and prepared for the next stage of his life in Trion, a small community built around a cotton mill.
Since he was a boy, he had worked at his father’s grocery store, Hoyt’s Supermarket, on the edges of Trion. Asked recently how he felt about getting drafted, Williams was subdued, all these decades later.
The Army assigned Williams to work as an engineer supply technician. After his induction in Atlanta, he shipped off to Europe and was stationed in England, France, Belgium and Germany for about 2 1/2 years. He worked in a supply house, receiving the goods that higher-ups felt were necessary to win World War II.