Let us never forget this day

Historical estimates are that over 156,000 Allied soldiers were involved in Operation Overlord.  What is better known today as "D-Day."  Over 127,000 who landed on the five beaches of Normandy and more than 23,000 who came from the sky.  97 year old Tom Rice recreated his parachute jump into Normandy the day before the anniversary.

The sacrifices made on this day in the battle to establish a beachhead in German-occupied Europe were many.  In 1944, Bedford, Virginia was a town with a population of 3,500.  35 of Bedford's sons were serving on D-Day.  21 of them died during the landings at Normandy, 19 of them within 15 minutes.  Two others died serving in different units.  

Today, Bedford VA is home to the National D-Day Memorial, a cause championed by one of Bedford's sons who survived landing on Normandy on D-Day.  Sergeant Bob Slaughter rose to prominence in 1994 when he led then-President Bill Clinton on a tour of Omaha Beach.

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That is Corporal Waverly Woodson.  One of roughly 900 African-Americans who were part of the Allied forces who were part of the D-Day invasion of Europe.  CPL Woodson was a medic and he spent 30 hours treating his fellow soldiers on the beach before collapsing and being evacuated to a hospital ship.  He insisted on returning to Omaha Beach less than a week later.

CPL Woodson died in 2005.  His family wants to see his bravery on the field of battle honored with the Medal of Honor.  General John Lee, the man in charge of supplying troops in the European theater of operations wrote a note about CPL Woodson's achievements:

“Here is a negro from Philadelphia who has been recommended … for a big enough award so that the president can give it personally, as he has in the case of some white boys.”

General Lee has most of the African-Americans soldiers serving in the theater under his command and he wanted to give those who were volunteers the opportunity to serve in combat units.  His idea for integrating these men into infantry units were dismissed but he was able to form 37 African-American rifle platoons from volunteers.

The films about D-Day and other major World War II battles usually give short shrift to the African-Americans who served, fought and died alongside their Caucasian counterparts.  Kudos to 2001's Pearl Harbor for telling the story of Doris "Dorie" Miller.  The only sign of the presence of CPL Woodson and the other members of his all African-American unit to be seen in the D-Day sequence in 1998's Saving Private Ryan are the barrage balloons in the skies over the beach.  Those balloons were there to prevent German dive-bomber aircraft from attacking the landing forces.  The razor-sharp steel wires they lifted into the air could slice the wing right off of a plane.

Spike Lee took issue with how Clint Eastwood's 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers had no African-Americans in it.  Eastwood's response was that the film was about the raising of the flag atop Mount Surbachi and there were no black faces in the group that raised that flag.

Mr. Eastwood is correct, but there were hundreds of African-Americans ferrying ammo to the Marines in the landing force.  Most of them were forced to get into the fight with their own rifles in the chaos of combat.

The effort to get proper recognition for CPL Woodson is going to be difficult as most (if not all) of the survivors who witnessed his gallantry have also passed on.

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Carlton W. Barrett
John E. Butts
Robert G. Cole
Arthur F. DeFranzo
Charles N. DeGlopper
Walter D. Ehlers
John D. Kelly
Jimmy W. Montieth, Jr.
Carlos G. Ogden
Frank D. Peregory

John J. Pinder
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

The Army history website has the citations that each of these men received to accompany the award of the Medal of Honor for their actions on D-Day.  Nine of the awards were made posthumously.

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We must never forget what these intrepid men did on that fateful day 75 years ago.