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Honors for Waverly Woodson at Arlington National Cemetery

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Joann Woodson receives the Bronze Star and Combat Medic Badge at Arlington National Cemetery on Oct. 11, 2023. Photo: Department of Defense

In an extraordinary ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Oct. 11, the First Army honored the late Sgt. Waverly Woodson for heroics on Omaha Beach that have long gone unrecognized.

Two retired First Army generals presented Joann Woodson with the Medic Combat Badge and a Bronze Star, tributes her late husband earned for his service on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Despite his own serious injuries, Woodson treated hundreds of wounded, saving countless lives, until he collapsed 30 hours after landing. Click here to read more about the event.

Joann Woodson and her family are hoping this another step toward the Medal of Honor, our nation’s top award for valor. Woodson was nominated for the award in 1944 but he did not receive it. No African American soldiers did during World War II. “I hope I live long enough to see this Medal of Honor,” Joann Woodson said. “It’s been a long time.”

Click here to read more about the battle to award Woodson the Medal of Honor.

Click here to read more about Waverly Woodson’s battalion, D-Day’s only Black combat unit.

 

Army Clinic Honors D-Day hero Waverly Woodson

Stephen Woodson spoke about his father at the dedication. Photo: Mark A. Kane

Great news! The US Army yesterday named the Rock Island Arsenal's health clinic in honor of Waverly B. Woodson Jr., an unsung hero of the D-Day invasion who served in a segregated unit. Like other deserving Black soldiers, he was not awarded the Medal of Honor, though senior officers nominated him. But yesterday the Army dedicated the Woodson Health Clinic, and son Stephen Woodson traveled to Illinois for the ceremony. A bipartisan bill is pending on Capitol Hill to award Woodson the Medal of Honor. Please support the bill! and the Woodson family’s Medal of Honor petition.

You can read all about Woodson’s story and his battalion in the book Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes.

Watch FORGOTTEN on YouTube

FORGOTTEN on YouTube!

Missed Linda Hervieux’s online event with National D-Day Memorial’s Lunchbox Lecture Series?

Click here to watch the video.

Thanks to John Long and the team in Bedford, Virginia, for featuring FORGOTTEN!

Linda Hervieux speaks on March 2, 2022, as part of the National D-Day Memorial’s online series.

Le Monde reports Woodson Medal of Honor campaign

« L’histoire a largement oublié les quelque 2 000 soldats noirs qui se trouvaient à Omaha Beach et Utah Beach le 6 juin 1944 », souligne Linda Hervieux, autrice de Forgotten : The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, at Home and at War

Waverly Woodson Medal of Honor bill

Exciting news! Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland has taken the fight to win a Medal of Honor for Waverly Woodson to the next level. Van Hollen has teamed up with a coalition of bipartisan legislators to introduce a bill in the Senate and House calling on the President to award Woodson our nation’s highest honor.

Van Hollen announced the news Sept. 8 at a Zoom press conference attended by Joann Woodson, Woodson’s wife, and his legislative partners. This is looking good!


Check out these links to the story:

The Washington Post

ABC News

NPR

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