Today I continue my series of Hidden Stories of Operation Overlord or the D-Day Landing in Normandy, France 6 June 1944.
In Honor of Black History Month I’m proud to introduce to you.
SSgt Waverly Bernard Woodson Jr.
(Aug 3, 1922-Aug 12, 2005)
SSgt Woodson was an American staff sergeant and health professional. He is best known for his heroic actions as a combat medic during the Battle of Normandy in World War II. A pre-med student at the start of WWII, after Pearl Harbor, Woodson voluntarily left med-school at Lincoln University and enlisted in the U.S Army and was subsequently assigned to the 320th Barrage Balloon Company. After successfully completing training as an Anti-Aircraft Field Artillery Officer-in which he was one of two African Americans who completed the program only to be told he would not be commissioned because there were no officer positions for people of his race. He was retrained as a combat medic. The 320th Balloon Company would be the only African American unit assigned to the D-Day Landing. Woodson’s landing craft enroute to landing zone struck a land mine and shrapnel injured his leg and his groin–he requested a fellow medic bandage him up and he returned to the battlefield where for over the first 24 hrs of the D-Day Operation his knowledge and expertise as a medic is estimated to have saved over 200 lives of Allied soldiers regardless of race.
Recommended for the Army’s 2nd Highest Medal the Distinguished Service Cross–his commanding general wanted his medal upgraded to the Congressional Medal of Honor with President Roosevelt to present it–In 1997 President Clinton called for an inquiry into why no African Americans were awarded the Medal of Honor for World War II. This honor was subsequently awarded posthumously to 7 African American World War II veterans over a 5 year time period after 1997. SSgt Woodson wasn’t among this group his Distinguished Service Cross was subsequently downgraded to a Bronze Star and Purple Heart because the then War Department in Washington, DC discounted the service of African American military personnel during World War II. Additionally Woodson’s military records were lost during a fire at Army Archives Center in 1973–therefore making verification of his actual service and actions at D-Day impossible in 1997. Since 2020 there has been a renewed push to get SSgt Woodson awarded the Medal of Honor Posthumously the package as slowly been working its way through both the Congress and Pentagon and President Biden has said he will sign off on awarding SSgt Woodson’s Medal of Honor Package if the Congress will send it to him. Both the story of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion and SSgt Waverly Woodson have been lost to the archives of time and one of the hidden stories of D-Day that I have been uncovering during my research ” Hidden Secrets of D-Day”. Time doesn’t permit me to tell this entire story for more information on the 320th BBB and SSgt Woodson please read the following book ” Forgotten” by Linda Hervieux. Despite training in the segregated south at Camp Tyson, Tennessee each went on to serve with honor at Operation Overlord. You may know their story of training from the hit movie “A Soldiers Story” a play on Broadway and also a hit movie in 1984 is loosely based on the 320th Balloon Battalion.
Footnote:
In September 2020, United States Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) introduced bill S.4535: “A bill to authorize the President to award the Medal of Honor to Waverly B. Woodson, Jr., for acts of valor during World War II”.[40] An equivalent bill, H.R.8194, was also introduced in the United States House of Representatives by David Trone (R-Md.).[41] Woodson’s widow Joann has announced that, if Woodson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, she would donate it to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.[39] In June 2021, Commanding General of the First United States Army Thomas S. James Jr. wrote in favor of Woodson receiving the Medal of Honor.[32]I