Help Honor Our Black American Vietnam Veterans, Vietnam Veterans’ Day is March 29th

Vietnam Veterans’ Day is March 29th in Wisconsin and about a dozen other states. There is a national push taking place right now. Learn more at TSIO.org

There are many to choose from. We remember and honor them all. Here are a few examples.

Clifford Chester Sims – On February 21, 1968, after tripping a hidden booby-trap, Sims saved his squad by throwing his body on top of the bomb and absorbing the shock. Via:TheGrio.com

Dwight Johnson was the only tank driver to receive The Medal of Honor for bravery in combat. Under devastating fire, he fought the enemy with a .45 caliber pistol, advanced to arm himself with a sub machine gun, brought a wounded tank driver to safety, remounted his own immobilized tank where he bravely and skillfully engaged the tank’s externally-mounted .50 caliber machine gun until the situation was brought under control. Via: Badass.com

Former Green Beret Melvin Morris of Port St. John, FL will receive the Medal of Honor — four decades late — for actions in Vietnam in 1969. Morris found his niche in the military. By 1961, he was one of the first soldiers donning the “green beret” of the U.S. Army Special Forces. Via:http://www.wtsp.com/

According to his medal citation, Morris and two other men went to retrieve a body. As he was giving him his last rites, a hail of gunfire opened up, and the two other men were wounded. He helped evacuate his fellow soldiers, then turned around. Through withering fire, he charged a line of bunkers, destroyed four of them with grenades, drove the enemy fighters back, collected a fallen map case that held sensitive material and then carried the commander’s body out of harm’s way, all while taking bullets to arm, hand and chest. For his actions that day, Staff Sgt. Morris was awarded a Purple Heart for his wounds, and the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second-highest decoration, for his heroism. Morris went back to Vietnam for a second combat tour.

Specialist/SFC Lawrence Joel (February 22, 1928–February 4, 1984) was an American military veteran. He served in the United States Army in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War. While serving in Viet Nam, as a medic assigned to 1st Battalion of the 503rd Infantry in the 173rd Airborne Brigade, Joel received the Silver Star and the Medal of Honor for his heroism in a battle with the Viet Cong that occurred on November 8, 1965. Via:Freepublic.com

Vietnam War- Specialist 4 Esther M. Gleaton Specialist 4 Esther M. Gleaton, clerk-typist, WAC (Women’s Army Corps) Detachment, Long Binh, Vietnam, 1968-1969. Via:America Memorial Foundation

An image from the Soul Soldiers exhibit which is based on the book: Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era. Via: Theblackartdepot.com

• Learn about the first African American Medal of Honor Recipient
• Learn about other African American Veterans that served
• Learn about African American Woman Inventor that the VA Ignored

First African American Medal of Honor recipient of the Vietnam War

Milton Lee Olive, III (November 7, 1946 – October 22, 1965) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of America’s highest military decoration — the Medal of Honor — for his actions in the Vietnam War. At the age of 18, Olive sacrificed his life to save others by smothering a live grenade. He was the first African American Medal of Honor recipient of the Vietnam War.

March 25th is also Medal of Honor Day.

In 1993, Congress ordered a study to determine whether racism explained why no black soldier had received the Medal of Honor in World War II. “It was a pretty persuasive document that said yes, in all likelihood, or without doubt, racial discrimination in the Army, in all of the services, ended up creating this imbalance,” Richard Kohn, a former Pentagon executive and one of the researchers, told America Tonight. The study paved the way for other reviews of different groups of minority soldiers overlooked for the military’s highest honor because of politics or prejudice. In 2002, the National Defense Authorization Act ordered the Army to review all of the Jewish and Hispanic soldiers who had received the Distinguished Service Cross from World War II onward, to see if any had deserved the nation’s highest honor. VIA:OriginalPeople.org

• Learn more about other African Americans that served during the war in Vietnam 
• Learn about other African American Veterans that served 
• Learn about African American Woman Inventor that the VA ignored

Honoring Black Veterans for Black History Month

 February is Black History Month. Honoring our Black American Veterans. 

African American Soldiers in World War Two

First African-American woman to achieve rank of major general in U.S. Army inspires many

Sgt. William H. Carney won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery during the Civil War on July 18, 1863 (the first Black soldier to receive the coveted award). Sargent Carney, a member of the 54th Massachusetts Colored infantry was wounded twice during the charge on Fort Wagner, S.C. while rescuing the Union Flag.

Henry “Black Death” Johnson. “By the time reinforcements arrived, Johnson had passed out from his wounds. By daylight, the carnage was evident: Johnson had killed four Germans and wounded an estimated 10 to 20 more in a savage hand to hand combat while suffering 21 wounds himself in the fight. Henry Johnson had prevented the Germans from breaking through the French line. He was the first American private to receive the Croix du Guerre, France’s highest military honor for extraordinary valor.

Tuskegee Air Women Tuskegee Air Women, 1940s. Assigned as weather observers and forecasters, cryptographers, radio operators, repairmen, sheet metal workers, parachute riggers, link trainer instructors, aerial photograph analysts and control tower operators in the Air Corps.

Vernon Baker, who was the only living black veteran awarded the Medal of Honor for valor in World War II, receiving it 52 years after he wiped out four German machine-gun nests on a hilltop in northern Italy, died Tuesday at his home near St. Maries, Idaho. He was 90.

The first African American female General and first African American Chief of the US Army Nursing Corps. Via: Black Art Depot

One of the few black combat regiments in World War I Their nickname they’d received from their German foes: “Hellfighters,” the Harlem Hellfighters.

But did you know……………………………

On June 14, 1864 Congress passed an amendment to the Enrollment Act of 1863 calling for equal pay for black and white soldiers. Before this, black soldiers were paid $ 7 per month compared to $ 13 for whites.

We thank ALL of our Veterans.