Here's a well-designed Veterans memorial plaza --made Hallowed and Sacred ground. That means never…read moreis yelling done here and no playing or games are to be played here. That includes pokeman players.
I stood here to recognize, honor, respect, and grieve at the sacrifice of GIs. For they left too many pieces of their youth in too many battles for too many years. As I always do during our visits to any Veterans memorials, I cried silently. For over and over and over I kept hearing young voices. They were softly saying: when you go home, tell them of us and that for your tomorrows, we gave our today.
All Veterans memorials commemorate that the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one's country. Veterans answered the call. Isaiah 6:8 ESV: And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." Here is a memorial for those who wrote a blank check to the United States of America for up to and including their life.
As I left, I remembered, all history, such as what is here, is prologue.
February is Black History Month
During World War I (28 July 1914 - 11 Nov 1918), despite rampant, violent and overt racism, more than 350,000 black Americans Served in US Army segregated units; 6,750 in US Navy though only allowed as coal heavers, messmen, stewards, and cooks; just over 5,000 in US Coast Guard as messmen others at segregated Life-Saving Stations there to aid ships in distress; the US Marines then barred all blacks. Approximately 1,200 of those holding US Army officer commissions during World War I were black.
The French needed more military men during World War I and welcomed black Americans as equal comrades-in-arms. To French Army instructors, blacks were simply Americans to be trained for combat. The black Americans clearly excelled. The 369th Infantry regiment, later nicknamed the "Harlem Hellfighters", of which one Henry Johnson was a member, was among the first to arrive in France, and among the most highly decorated when it returned home.
William Henry Johnson (circa 15 Jul 1892 - 1 Jul 1929), commonly known as Henry Johnson, enlisted 5 June 1917, in United States Army.
Private Johnson performed heroically and above the call of duty in the first African American unit of the US Army to engage in combat in World War I. On watch in the Argonne Forest on 14 May 1918, he fought off a German raid in hand-to-hand combat, killing several enemy soldiers and rescuing a fellow soldier all while suffering 21 wounds.
In 1918, the French government awarded Johnson with a Croix de Guerre with the highest Star and Bronze Palm. He was the first US soldier in World War I to receive that honor.
Johnson's military heroism first came to national attention in an article by Irvin S. Cobb entitled "Young Black Joe" published in the 24 August 1918 Saturday Evening Post.
Returning home, now-Sergeant Johnson participated with his 369th Infantry regiment in a victory parade on Fifth Avenue in New York City in February 1919.
Veterans Bureau records show a "permanent and total disability" rating for tuberculosis granted to Johnson 16 September 1927. Additional Veterans Bureau records refer to him receiving monthly Veterans disability compensation and regular visits by Veterans Bureau medical personnel until his Service-connected all-too-early death 1 July 1929, in Washington, D.C.
He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery 6 July 1929.
In November 1991, a monument was erected in Albany, New York's Washington Park in Johnson's honor, and a section of Northern Boulevard was renamed Henry Johnson Boulevard.
The US Army awarded him awarded the Purple Heart in 1996, and in 2002, the Distinguished Service Cross.
4 September 2007, the Brighter Choice Foundation in Albany, New York, dedicated the Henry Johnson Charter School, with Johnson's granddaughter in attendance.
A 1918 commercial poster honoring Johnson's wartime heroics was the subject of a 2012 episode of the PBS television series History Detectives.
December 2014, City School District of Albany established a Junior Reserve Officers Training Program (JROTC) at Albany High School named the Henry Johnson Battalion in honor of him. The program currently enrolls over 100 cadets.
2 June 2015, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama in a posthumous ceremony at the White House.
2017, Albany-area PBS station WMHT aired a documentary about Johnson titled Henry Johnson: A Tale of Courage.
Johnson's story is recounted in the song Don't Tread on Me (Harlem Hellfighters) by the Ukrainian death metal band 1914 on their album Where Fear and Weapons Meet, released 22 October 2021.
24 May 2022, The Naming Commission recommended that Fort Polk in Leesville, Louisiana, be renamed Fort Johnson after Henry Johnson, rather than its former namesake, a confederate who had taken up arms again US.
