Honors for Waverly Woodson at Arlington National Cemetery

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.

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

NPR's Here & Now features FORGOTTEN

The men of the HQ battery of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion pose in France, July 1944.

Thanks to NPR's Here & Now, recorded at WBUR in Boston, for inviting Linda Hervieux on the show to talk about FORGOTTEN: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, At Home and At War. They also published an excerpt from the book. Read it here.

Al Sharpton interviews Linda on MSNBC's PoliticsNation

Al Sharpton interviewed Linda Hervieux at MSNBC's studios in Rockefeller Center. 

Should D'Day's hero medic, Waverly Woodson, receive the Medal of Honor? That was question Al Sharpton explored on his MSNBC show PoliticsNation. Woodson, dubbed the invasion's No. 1 hero by the black press, was nominated for the nation's highest honor, though he never received it. His widow, Joann Woodson, eloquently made the case to Sharpton about her husband's heroism. Linda's Hervieux's book FORGOTTEN: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, At Home and At War, makes the case for Woodson to posthumously receive this important award.  See the interview here. 

Veterans Day publicity blitz for FORGOTTEN

Linda Hervieux was joined by William and Beulah Dabney at the Harrison Museum of African American Culture in Roanoke, Va.

Veterans Day coverage of FORGOTTEN was overwhelming! The book made various TV, radio, print and websites. Linda Hervieux appeared with 320th veteran William Garfield Dabney in Roanoke, VA, on Nov. 10, to a full house at the Harrison Museum of African-American culture. On Nov. 11, she spoke at American University where she was joined by 320th vet Willie O. Howard and Joann Woodson, the wife of Waverly Woodson. The Woodson family has launched a campaign to obtain for him the Medal of Honor for his service on Omaha Beach.

See ABC7-TV's interview with Linda and Joann here.

ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek found a clip from Waverly Woodson's 1994 interview on the 50th anniversary of D-Day. See his report and video with Brian Ross here.

Hear Linda on the Kojo Nnamdi show on WAMU radio, Washington DC's NPR station here.

See Linda's interview on Bob Herbert's Op-Ed TV here.

See Linda's interview with NY1's Cheryl Wills here.

Richard Sisk at Military.com wrote up this piece on the Medal of Honor campaign, click here.

Linda snapped this iphone shot on the fly that hardly does justice to radio host Kojo Nnambdi, who was kind enough to invite Linda on his WAMU show to discuss the issues raised in FORGOTTEN. His producer said they got the most listener calls in recent memory.