In the spring and summer of 1918, two young Americans risked their lives to save fellow soldiers from German advances on the French front line during World War I. On Tuesday, President Obama will posthumously award the Medal of Honor to both of them.
During night sentry duty on May 15, 1918, one of the men, Pvt. Henry Johnson of the Army, helped his “Harlem Hellfighters” regiment repel a surprise attack by a dozen German raiders. With only a knife, he singlehandedly held off the enemy, preventing the capture of a wounded fellow soldier.
Private Johnson died about a decade later, a victim of 21 combat-related injuries.
But for most of the past century, the Army resisted efforts to award the Medal of Honor to him, citing, in part, the service of Private Johnson and his fellow black soldiers under a French command, not an American one. At the time, racial discrimination in the Army prevented black soldiers from fighting alongside white troops.
On Tuesday, Mr. Obama will bestow the medal, the nation’s highest military award for valor, on Private Johnson, granting official recognition for his courage on the battlefield. Command Sgt. Maj. Louis Wilson of the New York National Guard will accept the award on behalf of Private Johnson, who entered the Army as a member of an all-black National Guard unit in 1917.
“The great thing about America is that we undo our injustices more than any other country,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, who spent years trying to get the Medal of Honor for Private Johnson. “His act of heroism was amazing.”
Also on Tuesday, Mr. Obama will award the medal to Sgt. William Shemin of the Army, a rifleman who repeatedly left the safety of his platoon’s trench to recover wounded soldiers amid a barrage of machine-gun fire and artillery shells. He was hit by shrapnel, and a bullet pierced his helmet, lodging behind his left ear.
Sergeant Shemin survived, then earned a degree from the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University and started a landscaping business. He died in 1973 after raising three children. The medal is being awarded at the urging of Jewish organizations.
Both men were to be honored in a midday ceremony in the East Room of the White House. The Medals of Honor will be the 44th and 45th that Mr. Obama has awarded.
The stories of the two soldiers offer a glimpse into the often bleak circumstances in France during World War I as British, French and American troops battled the advancing German Army across the countryside.
In its official description of Sergeant Shemin’s actions, the Army notes that he assumed command of his platoon after all of those senior to him had become casualties in a three-day battle on the Vesle River, near Bazoches.
The Army’s website for Sergeant Shemin quotes one of his superiors, Capt. Rupert Purdon, as saying that the sergeant, exhibiting utter disregard for his safety, “sprang from his position in his platoon trench” and “dashed out across the open in full sight of the Germans, who opened and maintained a furious burst of machine-gun and rifle fire.”
Private Johnson’s story is equally bracing. Serving under a French Army colonial unit on the western edge of the Forest of Argonne in the Champagne region, Private Johnson and a fellow soldier, Pvt. Needham Roberts, were ambushed by German soldiers.
After Private Roberts was badly wounded, Private Johnson fought to keep him from being captured, according to the Army’s official narrative of the battle.
“Johnson exposed himself to grave danger by advancing from his position to engage an enemy soldier in hand-to-hand combat,” the Army account says. “Wielding only a knife and being seriously wounded, Johnson continued fighting, took his bolo knife and stabbed it through an enemy soldier’s head.”
Mr. Schumer said in an interview that Private Johnson had long deserved the Medal of Honor, but that early efforts to find a contemporaneous description of Private Johnson’s valor — one requirement for the award — had been unsuccessful. In 2011, however, a staff member in Mr. Schumer’s office discovered two such descriptions, helping to break through what he called a bureaucratic logjam.
In addition, Mr. Schumer said, the Army relented on the rules about serving under an American command. “It’s so moving because of what Henry Johnson did, because of why he didn’t win the medal, all the bureaucracy,” he said.
“I’m confident,” Mr. Schumer added, that Private Johnson and the man he protected, Private Roberts, are “looking down from heaven and smiling.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/u...column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
During night sentry duty on May 15, 1918, one of the men, Pvt. Henry Johnson of the Army, helped his “Harlem Hellfighters” regiment repel a surprise attack by a dozen German raiders. With only a knife, he singlehandedly held off the enemy, preventing the capture of a wounded fellow soldier.
Private Johnson died about a decade later, a victim of 21 combat-related injuries.
But for most of the past century, the Army resisted efforts to award the Medal of Honor to him, citing, in part, the service of Private Johnson and his fellow black soldiers under a French command, not an American one. At the time, racial discrimination in the Army prevented black soldiers from fighting alongside white troops.
On Tuesday, Mr. Obama will bestow the medal, the nation’s highest military award for valor, on Private Johnson, granting official recognition for his courage on the battlefield. Command Sgt. Maj. Louis Wilson of the New York National Guard will accept the award on behalf of Private Johnson, who entered the Army as a member of an all-black National Guard unit in 1917.
“The great thing about America is that we undo our injustices more than any other country,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, who spent years trying to get the Medal of Honor for Private Johnson. “His act of heroism was amazing.”
Also on Tuesday, Mr. Obama will award the medal to Sgt. William Shemin of the Army, a rifleman who repeatedly left the safety of his platoon’s trench to recover wounded soldiers amid a barrage of machine-gun fire and artillery shells. He was hit by shrapnel, and a bullet pierced his helmet, lodging behind his left ear.
Sergeant Shemin survived, then earned a degree from the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University and started a landscaping business. He died in 1973 after raising three children. The medal is being awarded at the urging of Jewish organizations.
Both men were to be honored in a midday ceremony in the East Room of the White House. The Medals of Honor will be the 44th and 45th that Mr. Obama has awarded.
The stories of the two soldiers offer a glimpse into the often bleak circumstances in France during World War I as British, French and American troops battled the advancing German Army across the countryside.
In its official description of Sergeant Shemin’s actions, the Army notes that he assumed command of his platoon after all of those senior to him had become casualties in a three-day battle on the Vesle River, near Bazoches.
The Army’s website for Sergeant Shemin quotes one of his superiors, Capt. Rupert Purdon, as saying that the sergeant, exhibiting utter disregard for his safety, “sprang from his position in his platoon trench” and “dashed out across the open in full sight of the Germans, who opened and maintained a furious burst of machine-gun and rifle fire.”
Private Johnson’s story is equally bracing. Serving under a French Army colonial unit on the western edge of the Forest of Argonne in the Champagne region, Private Johnson and a fellow soldier, Pvt. Needham Roberts, were ambushed by German soldiers.
After Private Roberts was badly wounded, Private Johnson fought to keep him from being captured, according to the Army’s official narrative of the battle.
“Johnson exposed himself to grave danger by advancing from his position to engage an enemy soldier in hand-to-hand combat,” the Army account says. “Wielding only a knife and being seriously wounded, Johnson continued fighting, took his bolo knife and stabbed it through an enemy soldier’s head.”
Mr. Schumer said in an interview that Private Johnson had long deserved the Medal of Honor, but that early efforts to find a contemporaneous description of Private Johnson’s valor — one requirement for the award — had been unsuccessful. In 2011, however, a staff member in Mr. Schumer’s office discovered two such descriptions, helping to break through what he called a bureaucratic logjam.
In addition, Mr. Schumer said, the Army relented on the rules about serving under an American command. “It’s so moving because of what Henry Johnson did, because of why he didn’t win the medal, all the bureaucracy,” he said.
“I’m confident,” Mr. Schumer added, that Private Johnson and the man he protected, Private Roberts, are “looking down from heaven and smiling.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/u...column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
