Theolus “B” Wells
Orangeburg, South Carolina
On June 6, 1944, Theolus Wells – everyone called him “B” – shared a foxhole on Utah Beach that was so deep, Wells could barely haul all six-foot-two-inches of himself out of it. During his time in Britain training for the invasion, Wells had sometimes been mistaken for the heavyweight champ Joe Louis. On the morning of D-Day, Wells, age 21, said he “didn’t have enough sense to be scared.” He watched as a plane was hit by fire and the pilot jumped. “I’m an American!” the flyer yelled repeatedly as he parachuted to the beach. He died on July 16, 2018.
Theolus Wells, known as “B”, said he was too young to have enough sense to be scared on Utah Beach. He landed on D-Day.
Theolus Wells at home in 2011.
Photo: Linda Hervieux
Albert Grillette Wood
Baltimore, Maryland
Many of Albert Grillette Wood’s friends back home in Baltimore schemed to flunk their Army induction medical exam. Not Wood, even though he was terrified of being shipped to a training camp in the Jim Crow South. He had heard stories about black men arrested on false charges and forced to work on chain gangs. While he never confronted that horror, the daily racism he experienced during his years in the Army left him bitter, particularly after entreaties to fight in the name of freedom. "Discrimination hurt me more than anything in the world,” he said. "And I had to fight for these sons of bitches?"
Albert Grillette Wood in 2012
Photo: Linda Hervieux
Albert Grillette Wood holds his wartime portrait.
Photo: Linda Hervieux
Floyd Siler
Bennett, North Carolina
Floyd Siler landed with the 320th on Utah Beach on D-Day. He would never forget it the horrors he saw that morning. “The beach was covered with dead soldiers and you were stepping over them to get to dry ground,” he said. Siler endured vicious racism during the war but growing up in North Carolina, his best friend was a white boy.
Floyd Siler in 2011
Photo: Linda Hervieux
After the war, Floyd Siler trained as a tailor under the GI Bill but found it difficult to find a job. He retrained and and spent his career working as an fire alarm specialist for the Secretary of State’s Office in Washington, D.C. until his retirement in 1982.
Photo: Courtesy of the Siler family
Floyd and Helen Gill Siler were married for 48 years. They raised four children in Washington, D.C., before moving back to High Point, North Carolina in 1991.
Photo: Courtesy of the Siler family