William D. Hawkins

Camp H.M. Smith in Honolulu, Hawaii has a small area of land identified as Camp Hawkins, named after 1st Lt. Deane Hawkins. The site is located at the extreme northeast portion of Camp Smith and now sits within a secured perimeter fence line. Originally used in the later part of the Second World War as an R&R location, the site contains a small stone cabin and overlooks the southern coast of Oahu, from Diamond Head to Barber's Point, Hawaii. Cornerstones on either side of the cabin's doorway, identified the area "Shangri La" as it was dubbed by the construction engineers and the cabin itself is identified as ‘Camp McMullan’. Camp Hawkins was used as a training area for Marines, a recreation area (with the addition of playground equipment in the 1970s) and a camp ground for military personnel and their families. Today, it is used almost exclusively as a camp site for local Boy Scout organizations.

In September 1944, the Medal of Honor was presented to Hawkins' mother by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a White House ceremony.

Less than six months later, Hawkins was killed in action leading a scout-sniper platoon in the attack on Betio Island during the assault on Tarawa. During the two-day assault, 1st Lt. Hawkins led attacks on pill boxes and installations, personally initiated an assault on a hostile position fortified by five enemy machine guns, refused to withdraw after being seriously wounded and destroyed three more pill boxes before he was mortally wounded on November 21, 1943. For his actions above and beyond the call of duty, 1st Lt. Hawkins posthumously received the Medal of Honor.

After Pearl Harbor was attacked, he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on January 5, 1942, and was assigned to the 7th Recruit Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. He had tried unsuccessfully to enter both the Army and the Navy Air Corps, but his scars prevented his being accepted. Now, as a Marine, he was assigned to the 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, completed Scout Snipers' School at Camp Elliott, San Diego, and on July 1, 1942 embarked aboard the USS Crescent City for the Pacific area.

A private first class when he went overseas, he was quickly promoted to corporal and then sergeant. On November 17, 1942, he was commissioned a second lieutenant while taking part in the Guadalcanal campaign in the battle for the Solomons. On June 1, 1943, he was promoted to first lieutenant.

William Deane Hawkins (April 18, 1914 – November 21, 1943) was a United States Marine Corps officer who was posthumously awarded the United States' highest military honor – the Medal of Honor – for heroic actions and sacrifice of life during the Battle of Tarawa in World War II.

Hawkins was born on April 18, 1914 in Fort Scott, Kansas. When he was a baby, he suffered an accident which scarred him for life. A neighbor accidentally spilled a can of scalding hot water over him and it was a year before his mother was able to cure the muscular damage by massage and he could walk again.