William Grant Fournier was a sergeant in the United States Army who received the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously “for gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty” in the Pacific Theater during World War II. William was born in Norwich, Connecticut, on June 21, 1913, to Olive (Gaudreau) and Alfred C. Fournier. His mother died when William was a year old, and he went to Washington County, Rhode Island, to live with a maternal aunt, Amelia Gaudreau, and uncle, Henry Gaudreau. He attended schools in South Kingstown and, at the age of 18, enlisted in the United States Navy. In 1937, during his naval service, his aunt and adoptive mother, Amelia, died. William experienced a loss when Amelia, who had provided him with upbringing and support after his mother died, passed away.

Fournier ended his naval service and enlisted in the United States Army on September 12, 1940, at Winterport, Maine. After completing basic training, he was assigned to the 35th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division in the U.S. territory of Hawaii. The 35th Infantry Regiment was deployed to the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in December 1942, when the effort to seize the island had become epic. America’s first campaign was to turn back the Japanese in the Pacific. The regiment was part of the Army forces sent to relieve the Marines who had assaulted the island and its vital airfield since August 7, 1942. The Guadalcanal Campaign was fiercely fought at sea, in the air, and on land, where it became a monumental struggle of death, disease, and deprivation. The island’s strategic location and forward airfield, held by the Japanese, jeopardized Allied supply lines in the South Pacific, making its capture paramount.

On January 10, 1943, Sergeant Fournier and the heavy weapons Company M of the 35th Regiment took up positions in the Mount Austen Pocket on the island where some of the most intense fighting of the entire Pacific war took place. The American position was attacked by a large force of Japanese troops intent on seizing the so-called Sea Horse, a ridge on Mount Austen. The American defenders were ordered to withdraw when their position became untenable. Still, Sergeant Fournier and his assistant gunner, Technical 5 (sergeant) Lewis Hall, refused to withdraw and stayed with their machine gun to cover the retreat of their fellow soldiers. T/5 Hall lifted the machine gun by its tripod over his head to increase the weapon’s field of fire against the attacking enemy. While Hall held up the gun, Fournier continued to fire until Hall was killed, and Fournier was mortally wounded. Their intense fire allowed the other members of Company M to withdraw, regroup, and successfully prepare a counterattack. The fire provided by Fournier and Hall broke the Japanese assault. It forced the enemy to withdraw before they were subsequently defeated by the Americans, whose withdrawal was assured by the selfless courage of the two machine gunners.

Sergeant William Grant Fournier died on January 13, 1943, three days after suffering the wounds he received defending his fellow soldiers on Sea Horse Ridge. He and T/5 Hall were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously on June 5, 1943. During the Guadalcanal Campaign (August 7, 1942, to February 9, 1943), 15 Medals of Honor were awarded for actions ashore – 12 to United States Marines, two to the Army (Fournier and Hall), and one to a United States Coast Guardsman. Fournier is buried in the National Cemetery of the Pacific (The Punchbowl) in Honolulu, Hawaii. T/5 Hall, who was from Bloom, Ohio, was laid to rest at the Glenrest Memorial Estate in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.

LEGACY.

• The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 916, established in 1922 at 155 High Street in Wakefield, RI, is named in honor of William G. Fournier.
• Rhode Island’s North Central Airport in Smithfield was named Peters-Fournier Airport in 1953. Posthumous Medal of Honor recipient Private George J. Peters, United States Army (RI Heritage Hall of Fame, 1994, shares the naming honors with Sergeant Fournier.    
• In April of 2023, a special committee of the Town of South Kingstown’s 300th Anniversary celebration conducted a ceremony in honor of the town’s Medal of Honor recipients and its Missing in Action military personnel. Sergeant Fournier was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame at that ceremony.
• After Fournier’s induction, South Kingstown successfully arranged with the State of Rhode Island to dedicate three bridges to honor the town’s Medal of Honor recipients. The Sgt. William G. Fournier Memorial Bridge, with special red, white, and blue signage, is on U.S. Route IA in the village of Wakefield, RI, spanning the Saugatuck River. The bridge was dedicated in September of 2023

For further information, see:

The Pacific War Channel. “Guadalcanal Medal of Honor Series: Charles Davis, William Fournier, Lewis Hall.” Online video clip. YouTube.

YouTube, October 20, 2022. Web. June 23, 2025