Medal of Honor Monday: Army Sgt. John 'Bud' Hawk

When a person gets shot by a tank's machine gun, one might think they'd be wary of getting in the way of a tank again - but not Army Sgt. John Druse Hawk. During the Allied march across France in 1944, Hawk practically used himself as a human target to help U.S. tank destroyers take out German tanks. His initiative and bravery led him to receive the Medal of Honor.

Hawk was born May 30, 1924, in San Francisco to World War I veteran Lewis Hawk and his wife, Margaret. He had two sisters, Margaret and Dolores, and his family called him Bud.

When Hawk was still young, his family moved to Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, before settling on Bainbridge Island, a Seattle suburb, in 1931. In 1943, he graduated from high school. Two weeks later, as World War II raged, he was drafted into the Army.

After basic and advanced training, Hawk was placed in Company E of the 2nd Battalion, 359th Infantry, 90th Infantry Division. The 90th arrived in Normandy during the second week of July, but Hawk's unit didn't come by way of the beach like most troops. In a Library of Congress Veterans History Project interview, Hawk said his unit arrived on an aircraft that brought wounded men from the beachhead back to England. It just happened to be ready to return to France at the time they were heading over, so Hawk said the crew gave them a ride.

By August 1944, the 90th ID had traversed much of France.

"We learned to move fast and keep moving," Hawk said of his early days of war.

On Aug. 20, they were near Chambois, a crossroads town with highways, fields and orchards, in an area known as the Falaise pocket. It was called that because allied troops had formed a circle around a large German force, trapping them inside a pocket-like space. Their only possible escape was through a gap that the Allies were trying to close.

Hawk's unit was assigned to that mission. They came up from the south while British and other Allied troops came down from the north.

"The Germans were trying to get as much of their forces, especially their armor, out," Hawk said in his LOC interview. "They couldn't replace their tanks and their other equipment that they had with them [because] we were bombing all their factories."

Hawk, who was part of a weapons platoon, was manning a light machine gun when the enemy counterattacked with tanks and infantry. Hawk said his unit was able to trap the Germans' tanks and other heavy equipment by either running them out of gas or destroying them, but that left wreckage everywhere, which made the roads impassable. German tanks tried to pass through the orchards instead, Hawk said, while the German infantry withdrew.

At one point, an artillery shell knocked out Hawk's gun, while a German tank's machine gun injured him in the right thigh.

"I'm hiding behind an apple tree," Hawk remembered. "When some [tanks] came in range, I could see them, and I thought, 'I'll draw [our] fire on them.' Well, I didn't see the one tank, so he shot me right through the apple tree. … It was like getting hit with a sledgehammer. It knocked me flat."

He said instead of shooting again, the tank started coming toward him, like it was planning to run him over.

"[I thought,] 'I'm either done, or I can run like hell,' and boy, I took off out of there like you wouldn't believe," Hawk said. "I ran around the corner of another building and … ran full tilt into [another] tank. I bet you could hear the clang for a mile."

Hawk said that later, after the battle, a medic found the bullet that had hit him in the cuff of his pants. It had fallen out of the wound.

As the battle continued, Hawk was able to secure a bazooka, which he and another soldier used to stalk enemy tanks and force them to move into a wooded area, according to his Medal of Honor citation. Hawk managed to reorganize two machine gun squads, and he directed others to put together the pieces of two damaged guns to make one workable weapon. However, when another enemy assault developed, Hawk was forced to pull back.

Eventually, two allied tank destroyers were brought to the front line, but they couldn't see the German tanks, so their shots were ineffective. Hawk, however, had a much better vantage point.

"I could see the Germans, and I could see our tank destroyers. But they couldn't see each other because of the orchard and the trees," Hawk remembered. So, he decided to give the tank destroyers something at which to aim. Despite his wounds and the continued enemy fire, he climbed to an exposed area and made himself into a human target for the tank destroyers.

"The point was not [to hit] me, but to aim over me," Hawk explained. "Then I'll get out of the road, you fire, and I'll correct."

According to his citation, Hawk did this a few times. He would run through a concentration of bullets and shrapnel to get close to the tank destroyers to tell them where to aim, then he'd run back to his exposed position to become that human target. Eventually, two of the enemy tanks were knocked out and a third fled.

Hawk continued to direct the destroyers' fire until the Germans came out of the woods in droves to surrender. The Allies took about 500 prisoners that day and kept many other Germans from escaping the Falaise pocket.

From there, the 90th ID continued its press into Germany. By war's end, Hawk had been wounded four times, including at the Battle of the Bulge; however, he said none of the wounds were major.

In June 1945, Hawk was sent back home for a month of leave and stayed with his father. On June 8, Hawk learned he'd be receiving the Medal of Honor, even though he initially didn't know why.

"[Chambois] was one of the first actions I was in, and I was in action for five months after that," Hawk said. "So, I didn't know what action it was for."

He received the medal on June 21, 1945, from President Harry S. Truman, who was visiting Washington at the time. Hawk's family and friends got to witness the ceremony, which was held on the steps of the State Capitol in Olympia.

"That meant more to me than the medal itself," Hawk said. "My dad didn't stop smiling for about six years, and my mother was intensely proud."

About a month later, Hawk was discharged from the service, an option given to Medal of Honor recipients.

"I had one of the fastest discharges, I think, on record in the Army," he joked.

Hawk went back to college, first at Bremerton's Olympic Junior College before transferring to the University of Washington, where he graduated with a biology degree.

"It took me two years to win the war, but it took me seven years to get through college," Hawk joked in his LOC interview. "I think the university and the Veterans Administration finally got together and said, 'If somebody doesn't pass this sucker, he's going to be here the rest of his life.'"

Hawk's first job out of college was as a middle-school teacher. He spent 30 more years as an educator, eventually moving into administration as a principal.

Hawk married Nataline Crandall in 1948. They had three children, Mark, Marilyn and David.

Tragedy struck the family in May 1956, when Hawk was scheduled to go to France to help dedicate American military cemeteries. Before he left, however, his 6-year-old son, David, was struck by a vehicle and killed. Hawk didn't want to miss the ceremony because he considered it a duty, but he also didn't want to leave his wife alone to grieve. Thankfully, the Bremerton community stepped up and bought tickets for the pair to attend the ceremony together.

Throughout Hawk's life, he continued to honor and support service members, working on local military-related committees and attending numerous events to represent the nation as a Medal of Honor recipient.

"This is a symbol of service, and it belongs, in part …to everybody who does and will serve," Hawk said of the medal.

Hawk died on Nov. 4, 2013, at age 89. He is buried in Miller-Woodlawn Cemetery in Bremerton.

The Pacific Northwest has not forgotten its native son. A section of road in Bremerton was renamed in his honor shortly after his death and a nearby park was also dedicated to him. John D. "Bud" Hawk Elementary School carries his name, as does an Army education center on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

In February 2010, a post office on Bainbridge Island, where he grew up, was renamed in his honor.