Charlie Coleman, Sr.
Charlie Coleman, Sr.
HANOVER, PENNSYLVANIA
Charlie Coleman, Sr. landed on Utah Beach on D-Day with Battery C of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion. After the war Coleman spent the next 43 years as a trainer and caretaker at Hanover Shoe Farms in Hanover, Penn., where his charges included several Triple Crown winners. Coleman died on Jan. 30, 2003. “He is my hero,” says his son, Charlie Coleman, Jr., who heard about FORGOTTEN and wrote to this website to report that his father fought with the men of the 320th. Coleman earned several medals for his service, though he never received them, says his son. It’s a familiar story among African-American veterans. Several 320th vets reclaimed their medals long after the war. Here is a link to the National Archives site that is a first step for veterans hoping to reclaim their lost medals, or their family members hoping to do it for them.
THE MEDICS
Medics from the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion were the first African Americans on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Under relentless fire, they saved scores of men. Stars and Stripes wrote that the 320th medics “covered themselves with glory” on D-Day. Besides Waverly Woodson, they were: Private First Class Warren Capers of Kendridge, Virginia, Corporal Eugene Worthy and Staff Sgt. Alfred F. Bell, both of Memphis, Tennessee. Photos: Army Office of Military History.
Warren Capers
Eugene Worthy
Alfred F. Bell
320th SCRAPBOOK
George Davison scrawled the names of his buddies from the 320th on this snapshot taken in Octeville, France in July 1944. Davison noted his place in the back row.
Photo: Courtesy of Bill Davison
Wilson Monk (third from left) and other men from the 320th appear to be in deep thought as they peruse a document.
Photo: Courtesy of Wilson Monk
A 320th sodlier is pictured at a training camp, possibly in Britain, in this undated photo.
Photo: Courtesy of Bill Davison
Wilson Monk points to the names of his friends painted on the canister of a German gas mask he found in Normandy in 1944.
Photo: Linda Hervieux
Allen Jay Coles, Jr., (center) and two other 320th men posing on base, probably in Hawaii, which was the last stop for the battalion.
Photo: Courtesy of the Adkins family
320th men having fun in Hawaii with a their standard issue M-1 rifle.
Photo: Courtesy of the Adkins family
Artist Peggy Beeton captured the only known image of 320th men performing at the Village Hall in Checkendon, England, on New Year’s Eve 1943. Six men gave a concert of Negro spirituals, after prayers by the battalion chaplain, Rev. Albert White.
Photo: Oxfordshire Record Office