Marine remembered in Carteret
Home News Tribune Online 12/30/07

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By TOM CAIAZZA
STAFF WRITER
tcaiazza@eastbrun.gannett.com

CARTERET — William Colgan earned his medals on the hills of Peleliu.

His company of Marines was ambushed by the Japanese after taking an airstrip on the small coral island in the Pacific during World War II.

The Carteret graduate died 63 years ago while overseeing their escape. Newspapers and magazines heralded him as a hero.

Friends and family of Colgan gathered on Thursday at the Carteret High School library to honor him.

Shirley Goodwin, a sister of Colgan, donated a copy of Tom Brokaw's book "The Greatest Generation Speaks," which featured Colgan, to the library as part of a program by the Florida chapter of the Eastern Stars, of which she is a member.

The program has members donate books to any library they want in an attempt to boost literacy.

Goodwin spoke about her brother, who at 19 had already received two citations and would receive the Navy Cross for Valor posthumously. She told stories about growing up in Carteret where he would deliver papers for the Carteret News. She talked about how he would write home to his parents telling them to use some of his savings to help the household.

And, she talked about the letter he left with another sister — to be opened only if he did not come back.

"It was a 19-year-old boy writing his last will and testament," Goodwin said. "He was always thinking about the family and other people."

Goodwin said she was grateful to Carteret High School for honorong her brother.

Ellie