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.

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!

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Check out these links to the story:

The Washington Post

ABC News

NPR

Savannah Children's Choir pays tribute to the men of FORGOTTEN

Photo courtesy of Janet Singleton Wooten/Facebook 

I was so very touched to receive an email from Roger Moss, executive director of the Savannah (Ga.) Children's Choir, which performed a work at the June 6, D-Day ceremonies at the American Cemetery in Normandy paying tribute to the men of my book FORGOTTEN. Roger writes, "One of our children presented a report based on your book in order for the children to understand. Here are the lyrics. Thank you for your book." Thank you Roger, and the children in the choir! 

A SOLDIER'S HEART
Music: Wycliffe Gordon; Lyrics: Roger Moss

Brave and strong
Filled with gratefulness and song
Our hearts are full
Without worry or fear
All thanks to what you showed us here
For on these banks
With the light of battle in your eyes
You flew balloons of freedom in the skies
From many cities and sometimes kept apart
One thing in common, a soldier’s heart
A Soldier’s heart, a soldier’s spirit, a soldier’s soul
A heart whose beats are freedom songs
A spirit calls to right the wrongs
A soul that seeks justice and peace
Your children’s thanks will never cease
As we leave this place we’ll hold you near
Remembering all that we learned here
Our lives changed
Each day we’ll start
Living our lives with a soldier’s heart

Forgotten in the Guardian

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Opinion page of the Guardian, December 31, 2016

Thanks to Hugh Muir and the Guardian for a prominent mention of Forgotten: The Untold Story of D'Day's Black Heroes. Muir recounts the extraordinary treatment extended to African-American soldiers in wartime Britain. After the Brexit vote, hate crimes surged in Britain. He writes, "At times more tense and fearful in our history we have been more willing to show kindness to people of difference. We have been better than this." Click here to read his column.