Page 34 - Florida Sentinel 11-13-15 Edition

Card Of Thanks
THANK YOU
MRS. MINNIE LOU DREW
Gone, But Not Forgotten
The family of Minnie Lou Drew would like to take the time to thank all who have wrapped their arms around us, prayed for us, encouraged us, did many of deeds for us, and even those who fed us. Word won’t adequately express our appreciation for ALL the things that were done for us.
The Aikens Funeral Home Staff, the New Progress M. B. Church and their Ministerial Staff and Kitchen Staff, and all of her Home Health Aides and Agencies.
Those who traveled far and near to express their love for us and our mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin and friend.
National
Black World War II Medic May Finally Be Awarded The Medal Of Honor
WAVERLY B. WOODSON, JR.
An Army medic from a pioneer- ing all-Black World War II unit has been recommended — again — for the Medal of Honor for his actions on Omaha Beach, where he finally found the bonds of segregation lifted as he tended the wounded and dying under fire.
Waverly B. “Woody” Woodson Jr., who was a corpo- ral in the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion on D-Day, said later of his experience, “At that time, they didn’t care what color my skin was.”
Extensive research by author Linda Hervieux in a new book on the 320th, titled “Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, At Home and At War,” published by HarperCollins — has prompted Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, to call on the Army to reconsider the previ- ous Medal of Honor recommenda- tion for Woodson, who died in 2005.
In a letter to acting Army Secre- tary Eric Fanning, Van Hollen said, “As a result of his heroic ac- tions on D-Day, Woodson was recommended for the Medal but never received it.” He urged Fan- ning to review Woodson’s “record of service and authorize the posthumous award of the Medal of Honor to him.”
Hervieux, a former reporter and editor for the New York Daily News now living in Paris, wrote of Woodson that on Omaha Beach he “pulled out bullets, patched gaping wounds, and dispensed blood plasma. He amputated a right foot.”
“When he thought he could do no more, he resuscitated four drowning men. Thirty hours after he set his boots on Omaha Beach, Woody Woodson “collapsed of exhaustion and of shrapnel wounds he suffered as the landing craft neared the beach.” They took him to a hospital ship but he begged to go back in and rejoined the 320th on the beach.
In the telling, Hervieux has blended the social history of Jim Crow-era America with a military primer on the use of the little- known barrage balloon.
As described by Lt. Col. Leon Reed, commander of the battal- ion, “The primary aim of a barrage balloon pattern is to keep the enemy planes above the barrage or around it so that automatic
weapons of the AAA (Anti-Aircraft Artillery) can get at them.”
Cleveland Hayes, a member of the 320th, put it this way aboard the landing craft on June 6, 1944: “If a Nazi bird nestles in my lines, he won’t nestle nowhere else.”
The 320th, with 621 men in all, formed at Camp Tyson, Tennessee, where they endured the ostracism and slights typical of the day. On liberty, they watched as German prisoners of war lined up at restau- rants where they were denied serv- ice.
As has often been said of all- Black units in the U. S. military, they fought for liberties that were denied them at home.
The barrage balloons they trained with weren’t the huge, blimp-like versions that guarded London and the U. S. coasts. These were very low altitude, or VLA, types with about 2,000 feet of tether.
On D-Day, the job of the 320th troops was to lug the 125-pound balloons ashore and get them aloft to provide a lethal curtain against the Luftwaffe and shield the troops storming ashore on the Omaha and Utah Beaches of Normandy.
Stars and Stripes wrote in July, a month after the invasion, that the barrage balloons had “confounded skeptics,” and had done their part in “keeping enemy raiders above effective strafing altitude.”
Gen. Dwight D. Eisen- hower, the allied commander, wrote a commendation for the 320th: “Despite the losses sus- tained, the battalion carried out its mission with courage and determi- nation, and proved an important element of the air defense team.”
In the early morning hours of D-Day, “Woody” Woodson was in a landing craft tank, admiring the emerging French coastline and
the cliffs over Omaha beach. “That beauty didn’t last long when the Germans starting mess- ing with us,” he would say later. “They were shelling the devil out of us. At the same time, we went over two submerged mines. The whole thing jumped up out of the water.” Woodson was hit by shrapnel that passed through his leg and lodged in his groin area, but he scrambled ashore and set up a makeshift aid station. It was later estimated that he treated as many
as 200 wounded.
At one point, a rope line broke
from a stranded British landing craft to shore. Woodson pulled four men from the water and re- vived them, all the while teaching those around him how to resusci- tate a drowning man.
Woodson’s actions were cele- brated in the African-American press, which blared headlines call- ing him the “No. 1 Invasion Hero.” He eventually received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart but Hervieux’s research showed he was recommended for the Distin- guish Service Cross and then the Medal of Honor.
At the Harry S. Truman Presi- dential Library and Museum, Hervieux found documents showing correspondence between Philleo Nash, an assistant direc- tor at the Office of War Informa- tion, and White House aide Jonathan Daniels, on Wood- son’s case.
Nash wrote that Woodson’s commander had recommended him for the Distinguished Service Cross and Gen. John C. H. Lee had upgraded the recommenda- tion to what was then called the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Nash wrote to Daniels that “here is a Negro from Philadelphia who has been recommended for a suitable award ... This is a big enough award so that the Presi- dent (Franklin D. Roosevelt) can give it personally, as he has in the case of some white boys.”
Hervieux’s book, her first, has received glowing reviews.
Tom Brokaw, the former NBC anchor and author of “The Greatest Generation,” called “For- gotten” an “utterly compelling ac- count of the African-Americans who played a crucial and danger- ous role in the invasion of Europe. The story of their heroic duty is long overdue.”
PAGE 22-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015