The pursuit of honoring the past is an ongoing one. As a nation, our freedoms are poised on the largely unknown and unrecognized acts of unparalleled courage that those before us, namely service members, have committed, but often unknown and unrecognized because the vast majority of the stories of heroism and unbuckling bravery are lost to the annals of war and are casualties to the limits of memory.
To participate in celebrating the unbridled broadness of the great American ethos, it is indispensable that history must be revisited to create a more full picture of valor for those who have sacrificed all they have for the nation to prosper.
At the time of World War I, there were over 4 million service members of color who were mobilized into both combat and non-combat roles in America and Europe. Their efforts were galant and their sacrifices were made more extraordinary by the fact that many of them served to protect the liberties of a country in which their freedoms were limited based on the color of their skin.
The vastness of excellence of minority service members has historically been substantially underrepresented when discussing the Medal of Honor. To put this into perspective, of the 400,000 African American service members who served in WWI, only two of them were awarded the Medal of Honor and not until the 1990s had any African American soldier earned a modern Medal of Honor for their service in the Great War.
In 2016, a project based in Maryland was focusing on securing a Medal of Honor for Sergeant William A. Butler, a soldier who served in the New York National Guard’s highly decorated 369 Infantry Regiment, an all-black regiment famously known as the ”Harlem Hellfighters.” In an incredible act of loyalty and dedication, Sgt. Butler successfully rescued five of his comrades from German captivity.
After hearing of this pursuit, Park University associate professor of history and associate archivist Dr. Tim Westcott imagined duplicating the same process on a much larger scale, posing the question, “is there a way in which we can look at this in a broader perspective?”
The answer was an optimistic yes.
So, in 2018, in cooperation with The Doughboy foundation (previously the U.S. World War One Centennial Commission) and the American Legion, the first-ever medal of valor systematic review for minority service members of World War I was launched.
Systematic reviews are used to examine the quality of a standardized process and its outcome. Beginning at the close of the 20th century, three systematic reviews (in 1996, 1997, and 2002) were successful in setting a precedent for valor medal reviews in the cases of minority service members and led 68 veterans of color to become recipients of the Medal of Honor for their remarkable heroism.
Today, under the authority of the Resolution of the United States World War I Centennial Commission, the George S. Robb Centre for the Study of the Great War at Park University hosts the Valor Medals Review Task Force. The task force, in which Tim is joined by associate director Ashlyn Weber and senior military analyst Josh Weston, continues to perform “systematic investigation into minority (African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, Jewish American, and Native American) service members of the First World War.” As of October, 300 minority veterans from all four major military branches have been identified as being qualifants for review according to the guidelines of the Valor Medals Review Project.
“There are three criteria to be reviewed,” Tim explains. “Number one, the service member received a Distinguished Service Cross/Navy Cross and/or number two, the service member was a recipient of the French Croix de Guerre with Palm, which is our equivalent to the Medal of Honor.” Tim continues on to explain the third category for review is for service members who have a documented Medal of Honor nomination that “was downgraded to a DSC or a Navy Cross.”
One of the men who has qualified for review is Corporal Isaac Valley.
“A German hand grenade dropped among a group of his comrades,” says Josh. “Cpl. Valley had the opportunity to run away from the grenade, but rather valiantly attempted to cover it with his foot to protect his comrades, whereby he sustained injuries due to the explosion of the grenade and was mangled.” Cpl. Valley was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for his act of valor in 1918, which Josh says illustrates the incongruencies in which the Medal of Honor has previously been awarded.
“Corporal Valley’s actions are similar to Corporal Kyle Carpenter of the U.S. Marine Corps and his actions on 21 November 2010 in which he was awarded the Medal of Honor,” says Josh. “In my personal view, the similarity of their actions warrant an outcry for equal treatment and recognition regardless of the time these actions took place.”
Another soldier who received a Distinguished Service Cross for his act of valor is 2nd Lieutenant Rufus B. Jackson. During an artillery bombardment from the German military force, in which he and his company had been required to surrender their American equipment and were now armed with only obsolete “cumbersome and inaccurate” French level rifles, Lt. Jackson crawled through mud and barbed-wire while under the suppression of heavy artillery fire and located the German’s assemblage of machine-guns. When he arrived back at his company’s position, Lt. Jackson shared the location of the German’s heavy weaponry and instructed his colleagues to silence their guns. This allowed his company to move forward undetected and ultimately debase the German unit, driving them from their position.
In Mont Notre Dame, beneath a night sky blanketed with the smoke of tireless artillery fire, Private Sing Lau Kee performed an act of heroism that impacted the fates of himself and his fellow soldiers. On this night, his regiment was attacked with German mustard gas. Many of the soldiers who weren’t wounded from bullet fire became immobilized by the fiery vapors, unable to breathe and see, paralyzed by the sensation of scorching skin. As his skin singed and burned, Pvt. Kee dedicated himself to operating his regiment’s message center, alone, throughout the night and into the early morning hours. This act of valor allowed the frontline infantry units to communicate with their commanders to conduct continuous attacks and movements against the German forces. In the days following this, Pvt. Kee was severely wounded. The following year, for his selfless commitment to his country, Kee received his Distinguished Service Cross and was subsequently awarded the French Croix de Guerre with Gilt Star.
Josh emphasises the magnitude of the project’s spirit and makes clear that in order to honor all of our veterans, we must progress with a collective intention for inclusive justice.
“It is time for us, as a nation, to recognize the ignominious treatment of our servicemembers and civilians alike, despite color or creed, to pave the way to a brighter future,” says Josh. “Through this project, we want to set a new standard where we are all treated as equals and individuals, rather than representatives of a demographic one may belong to.”
You can find the George S. Robb Centre located in a historic 1845 converted log house at 8700 NW River Park Drive, CMB 117, Parkville, MO 64152.