Waverly Bernard "Woody" Woodson, Jr., didn’t wait for a draft notice to serve his country. His war story began in Pennsylvania, when he left his pre-med studies at Lincoln University and enlisted in the Army on December 15, 1942. He won a spot in Anti-Artillery Officer Candidate School after passing an exam weighted heavily to favor whites. When he finished training, he learned there were no positions open to him in the AAA corps. It was a common story for Black officers, who learned their service was limited by quotas and the rule that they not lead white officers junior to them. Instead, Woodson was sent for training as a medic with the 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion.
And that is how Corporal Woodson, 21 years old, found himself aboard a Landing Craft Tank (LCT) with five other medics heading toward Omaha Beach on the night of June 5, 1944.
On the approach to Normandy, Woodson’s LCT hit a mine and then was blasted by a shell, killing scores of men. Shrapnel sliced open Woodson’s buttocks and inner thigh. Woodson reached down and brought up a hand covered in blood. “I am dying,” he thought. Another medic patched up Woodson’s wounds just in time for a landing that Woodson would never forget.
The LCT’s ramp fell with a bang and to Woodson’s surprise the tank came alive. Woodson and the others followed it, splashing down in four feet of weather, machine gun fire popping mini-geysers of sand at their feet. The tank’s turret exploded into flames. No men came out.
Woodson unpacked a tank roll and set up a medical station in the shelter of the shingle, the rocky embankment that provided some cover from the German gunners tucked in the rocky bluffs. Under withering fire, Woodson worked through his pain and saved many lives. As Linda Hervieux writes in FORGOTTEN: the Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes:
“He pulled out bullets, patched gaping wounds, and dispensed blood plasma. He amputated a right foot. When he thought he could do no more, he resuscitated four drowning men. Thirty hours after he set his boots on Omaha Beach, Woody Woodson collapsed.”
Woodson was taken to a hospital ship, where he was treated for his wounds. Three days later, he asked to go back to the beach. In a news release dated August 28, 1944, the Army recounted Woodson’s heroics and noted that he “was cited by his commanding officer for extraordinary bravery on D-Day.” News of Woodson’s heroics spread. White newspapermen came to interview him, and when Woodson returned home, he was a star. The Black press hailed Woodson as “No. 1 Invasion Hero,” and began calling on the White House to award the medic the Medal of Honor.
“That the Army would praise the individual actions of a Black soldier on Omaha Beach was nothing short of extraordinary,” Hervieux says in her talks about the 320th.
Although Woodson did not know it, he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. A sole existing record tells the story. It is a hand-written note from Philleo Nash, an assistant director in the Office of War Information, to Jonathan Daniels, a White House aide. Nash writes that Woodson’s commanding officer had recommended him for the Distinguished Service Cross, but the office of U.S. Gen. John C. H. Lee in Britain had upgraded the recommendation to the Medal of Honor. Woodson is clearly the subject of this exchange because stapled to the note is the Army news release and Woodson was the only Black medic at Omaha Beach from Philadelphia.
Here is the text written by Nash (emphasis in original):
“Here is a Negro from Philadelphia who has been recommended for a suitable award. … This is a big enough award so that the President can give it personally, as he has in the case of some white boys.”
In the end, Woodson received the Bronze Star, the fourth-highest award. There is no record of what happened to Woodson’s high honor but thanks to the Nash note, we know that Waverly Woodson was nominated for the Medal of Honor.
More than one million African Americans served in World War II, yet not one received the Medal of Honor at the time. An independent Army investigation in 1995 concluded that pervasive racism was to blame for the lack of honors and opportunities for Black soldiers. On Jan. 13, 1997, President Clinton awarded the Medal of Honor to seven African Americans. Waverly Woodson, the 320th’s undisputed hero, was not among them.
“For the second time,” Hervieux writes, “Waverly Woodson was forgotten.”
In June 2015, President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to Henry Johnson, an African-American hero of World War I. In a moving speech, the President said,
“It is never too late to say thank you.”
Now it is time to honor Waverly Woodson, who ended his Army career as a staff sergeant. For the past few years, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen has led a campaign to obtain the Medal of Honor for Woodson. On Sept. 8, 2020, he announced a bipartisan bill that he is shepherding, joined by a coalition of legislators, to bring the matter to the floor of the Senate and House. Watch the Zoom conference here.
You can read more from Linda Hervieux on the subject of Woodson’s heroics in TIME and the Daily Beast. Buy the book FORGOTTEN in the US and UK at your favorite on bookstore or online.
If you agree with the campaign to award Waverly Woodson the Medal of Honor, please urge your senators and House members to support the bill. And please "sign" the online petition begun by the Woodson family. It only takes a minute.
West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Waverly Woodson’s first Army portrait.
Photo: Courtesy of Joann Woodson
(Photo: Linda Hervieux, Use with credit obligatory) Waverly Woodson is buried at Arlington National Cemetery where American buries its heroes. Each May around Memorial Day, his widow, Joann, arranges the red roses her husband loved so much beside his grave. A campaign is underway to award Woodson the Medal of Honor.