Retired Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Twitty with a photo of Waverly Woodson over his shoulder talks to the crowd about what it meant to be at the medal ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Woodson, an Army medic, posthumously received the Bronze Star and Combat Medic Badge for his heroics during the D-Day invasion during World War II. (Matthew Adams/Stars and Stripes)
ARLINGTON, Va. — A World War II combat medic posthumously received the Bronze Star and the Combat Medic Badge at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday as lawmakers and advocates continue to fight for him to receive the military’s highest honor for his actions during the D-Day invasion.
Cpl. Waverly B. Woodson Jr. was with the all-Black 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion and treated more than 200 troops during the landing of forces at Omaha Beach, the stretch of French coastline that saw the worst fighting on D-Day when Allied troops launched their amphibious invasion of Nazi-occupied France.
The gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., of Waverly Woodson, who posthumously received the Bronze Star and Combat Medic Badge on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (Matthew Adams/Stars and Stripes)
In the early hours of June 6, 1944, Woodson landed with his unit on Omaha Beach in Normandy. His landing craft came under heavy German fire and hit a mine as it approached the beach, according to an account of his actions in the book “Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, at Home and at War,” by Linda Hervieux.
“For a moment, he too thought he would die from his wounds,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Wednesday at the ceremony.
Despite having been struck by shrapnel in the inner thigh and buttocks when the landing craft hit the mine, Woodson spent 30 hours trying to save the lives of his fellow soldiers, according to Hervieux. He set up a casualty collection point at a rocky embankment on the beach that provided some protection from German machine guns.
Woodson survived the day and was approved to receive the Bronze Star in 1945 but never was awarded the medal because he had left Europe and was preparing to deploy for an invasion of Japan. He also never received a Combat Medic Badge, which denotes that a medic was in combat. His former unit — the 1st United States Army — applied for the award and it was approved in August.
Woodson later earned the rank of staff sergeant during his service in the Korean War.
Since 2015, Van Hollen has worked to upgrade Woodson’s Bronze Star to the Medal of Honor after his widow Joann Woodson reached out to his office. Her husband died in 2005 and she has advocated for years to get the medal upgraded.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., spoke at the ceremony for Army medic Waverly Woodson who posthumously received the Bronze Star and Combat Medic Badge on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, for treating more than 200 troops on D-Day in the only all Black unit to storm the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Van Hollen has fought to get Woodson’s Bronze Star upgraded to the Medal of Honor. (Matthew Adams/Stars and Stripes)
“It is clear from looking at our history that Cpl. Woodson has not yet been presented with the Medal of Honor because of historic discrimination,” Van Hollen said. “In the case of Cpl. Woodson, he was recommended at the time but because of washed records, due to no fault of his own, the information was not then available.”
Van Hollen explained, in 1973, more than 80% of the Army’s records were destroyed by a fire that broke out at the National Personnel Records Center in Missouri.
More than one million African Americans served in World War II, but none were awarded the Medal of Honor during the conflict. Seven medals were eventually awarded in 1997 by former President Bill Clinton, who said at the time that the men were “denied their nation’s highest honor” because of the color of their skin but “their deeds could not be denied, and they cleared the way for a better world.”
Steve Woodson spoke Wednesday about his father after his mother was presented with the awards. He recently visited Normandy and said the trip to northern France finally gave him a “full sense” of what the soldiers went through during the invasion.
Joann Woodson received her late husband Waverly Woodson’s Bronze Star on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Va. (Matthew Adams/Stars and Stripes)
“I know there’s been a lot of recounts through the years over racial prejudices. … I think that when dad was on [Omaha Beach], he didn’t see any of that,” Woodson said.
Retired Lt. Gen. Stephen Twitty, who served as commander of the 1st United States Army from 2016 to 2018, was not aware of Woodson’s story until a few weeks ago. He said he attends a lot of ceremonies throughout the country where Black soldiers “have not gotten their complete recognition” for the jobs that they did.
Twitty said the ceremony at Arlington was special for him because of his own service and the service of his grandfathers in the First Army in World War II during segregation.
Members of Waverly Woodson’s family posing for a photo after the medal ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Va. Woodson posthumously received the Bronze Star and Combat Medic Badge on Oct. 11, 2023. (Matthew Adams/Stars and Stripes)
“You can’t correct the wrong because Staff Sgt. Woodson isn’t here with us anymore. But what you can do is acknowledge the fact that he was wronged,” Twitty said following the ceremony. “As we acknowledge that wrong … also acknowledge him in his afterlife with the accomplishments that he’s achieved.”
