Robert Child: Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Recipients of World War II

Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Recipients of World War II – Robert Child – Osprey – 9781472852854 – 288 pages – hardcover – $30 – January 11, 2022 – ebook edition available at lower prices

It is remarkable to realize how few medals of honor were awarded for service during World War II – there were 432 Congressional medals given out of the over sixteen million men and women who served during that four year period during which America fought large scale brutal wars in both the Pacific and European theaters. It is therefore shocking to find out that not a single African American was among the 432 honorees, despite the fact that over one million African Americans served in the then mostly segregated military environment.

Racism remains an American fact of life. But the “progress” made in the modern era probably has muddied our awareness of what our country was like such a short time ago. Robert Child has done an admirable service with this book, documenting the incredible heroism of the seven Black American heroes of World War II who were finally recognized for their efforts – but only after an incredibly long period of time and much work in their behalf.

Child documents the recent historical investigations that have discovered and the stories of extraordinary acts of heroism and valor by the Black soldiers in World War II who were eventually awarded the highest honor our country offers for wartime service. The group of servicemen includes Vernon Baker, Sergeant Reuben Rivers, and Lieutenant Charles Thomas, who led his platoon that captured a strategically important village in Germany in 1944 despite suffering grievous wounds and losing half the men in his unit. The other four who are portrayed sympathetically and thoroughly in this book are Willy James, Jr., John Fox, Edward A. Carter, Jr., and George Watson, heroes all, not only for their valor in the fights they undertook, but for what they did to overcome the deep-seated endemic racism in the military during the time they served their country.

It was not until 1993 that a US Army commission determined that these seven men had been denied our country’s highest award – only because of racial discrimination. And then it was in 1997, more than 50 years after the war that President Clinton finally awarded the Medal of Honor to them, with only one still being living at the time.

Their stories comprise most of this book, as well as some background about the military before, during and after World War II. Sadly, it is almost certain that there are other Black service men and women who might have deserved recognition for their sacrifices and heroism in that war. It was not even until the Obama administration that two World War I heroes were recognized, Sergeant William Shemin, for whom the anti-semitism of the time meant his amazing feats of heroism were almost lost to history, and Sergeant William Henry Johnson, another Black soldier who had been recognized by France with a Croix de Guerre in 1919, but neglected by the United States for far too long.

It was an honor for me to speak with author Robert Child about this terrific and highly emotional book.

Child is a military history writer, director, and author with. Robert has received writing and directing awards including an Emmy® nomination. He lives in Atlanta.

“This is the only comprehensive narrative written about the African American Medal of Honor recipients of WWII to date. Extremely well written, with very little personal background on some of these men to work with, Child manages to bring each of these heroes’ stories to life on a personal level. Child carefully reconstructs each recipient’s life prior to his act of valor, demonstrating the character traits that made each an example of integrity, sacrifice and courage. This is a must-read book about seven black soldiers and their bravery at the highest level and the racial injustice that took over four decades to acknowledge. Well done!” ―Arthur Collins, President, 5th Platoon, the black World War II education and reenactment group

Author website here.

Purchase the book here.

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Ryan Leigh Dostie: Formation: A Woman’s Memoir of Stepping Out of Line

Formation: A Woman’s Memoir of Stepping Out of Line – Ryan Leigh Dostie – Grand Central Publishing – Hardcover – 978-1538731536 – 368 pages – $28.00 – ebook versions available at lower prices – June 4, 2019

Ryan Leigh Dostie’s story is sometimes a painful one to read, but it is too important to not read, and this is a book I can and must recommend to all readers. Ryan comes from an unusual background. She was raised in a women-run Christian community for most of her early life. Though she wanted to be a writer, she joined the Army after high school, trained to be a linguist, and was on the more or less normal course of a teenaged woman making her way in a male dominated military force, when she was raped by another soldier in her unit.

Her memoir recounts what happened to her, what she experienced subsequently, and how she lived through and was affected by, not only her personal trauma, but the experiences she shared with other soldiers in an active deployment in Iraq, where she was part of the first wave of the American invasion in 2003. It’s a sometimes harrowing story, but also inspiring, raw and powerful, as Ryan does not flinch from showing everything she experienced and felt through a long period during and after her most powerful personal experiences in the Army.

This book does not overtly take a particular political position, despite the pain and suffering the author endured throughout her time during and after her service. But it is impossible to read this book and not be forced to think about so many of the issues around male-female relationships, power and how it is applied, the patriarchal structure that dominates our culture, and the work needed to change the way men and women interact on a daily basis.

This is the story of one woman’s journey, as such, it is thoroughly compelling, but Formation cannot fail to affect anyone who reads it, and forces us to confront our own ingrained conceptual frameworks. Not only is the memoir a story of sexual assault in the narrow sense, Ryan’s story provides a representation of how societal structures affect us all, how the individual is made to be responsible for the failures of our systems, and hopefully will help spur us all to think how we might engage in the struggle to change those structures and systems sooner than later.

I’d also add that Ryan is, has become, a very good writer. It emerges in her story that she was an aspiring novelist when she was young, and after soldiering, she went on to complete a college degree, as well as an MFA. The writing in this book is evidence of how far she has come in learning her craft.

Her “official” bio: Ryan Leigh Dostie is a novelist turned soldier turned novelist. As an Army Persian-Farsi/Dari Linguist in Military Intelligence, she was deployed to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom I and II (2003-2004). She holds an MFA in fiction writing and a bachelor’s degree in History from Southern Connecticut State University. FORMATION is her first book.

It was my pleasure and honor to interview Ryan Leigh Dostie in New Haven, Connecticut, where she lives today. Her website is well worth a visit – www.ryanleighdostie.com

“Though I knew it would be urgent, compelling, and excellent from the first page, Formation was a much more expansive book than I even could have suspected: a riveting, enraging memoir from an author of remarkable toughness and emotional range. This is an unflinching and honest account of war, of homecoming, and of what happens when a woman reports an assault and the institutions around her try to smother the truth.” – Phil Klay, author of Redeployment

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Colin G. Calloway: The Victory with No Name

The Victory With No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army – Oxford University Press – paperback – 214 pages -978-0190614454 – $16.95 (ebook versions available at lower prices)

I think it’s safe to say that most Americans have not given much thought to the very early history of the United States. During the first decades after the country was formed, there was much concern about the survival of the new nation. The British were still well established in the north, the Spanish were in the south and southwest, and large numbers of Indians inhabited the vast area to the west. Pressure was being exerted on the federal government to open these western lands to settlement, putting the US on a collision course with the natives who lived there.

This area was known as the Northwest Territory – comprising what are now the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota. Almost all Americans dismissed the land claims of the Native Americans. These tribes they saw simply as impediment to American growth. While some American leaders preferred to purchase the Indians’ land, the need for the government to pay its debts by selling (Indian owned) land overwhelmed all other concerns, and led ultimately to a war of extermination with the tribes.

Historian Colin G. Calloway is exceptionally perceptive and knowledgeable about the early history of the United States of America. This short, well written book focuses on a single unnamed battle that took place in late 1791 in what is now Fort Wayne, Indiana. In this period, before there was a standing army, President George Washington ordered Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory, to direct a military campaign aimed at defeating the tribes that had refused to accept the unfair land deals the United States had proposed to them.

Calloway shows that the Native Americans were well organized and well-led, both politically and militarily. This surprised St. Clair as much as it may surprise us today. The American Indians were led by Little Turtle of the Miamis, Blue Jacket of the Shawnees and Buckongahelas of the Delawares (Lenape). Their war party numbered more than one thousand warriors, and included a large number of Potawatomis from eastern Michigan, a broad confederacy presaging similar Indian efforts to come in later years.

As Calloway points out: “Indians fielding a multinational army, executing a carefully coordinated battle plan worked out by their chiefs, and winning a pitched battle—all things Indians were not supposed to be capable of doing—routed the largest force the United States had fielded on the frontier.” It’s useful to note that the American army was poorly organized, included a large number of ill-trained militia, and was also victimized by crooked suppliers, starting a longstanding American tradition of private gain by military purveyors we recognize all too well today.

Unfortunately for the Native Americans, their victory was short lived. The stunning American defeat led directly to a number of changes in the way the new government operated. The House of Representatives initiated the first investigation of the executive branch, Congress established a standing army and gave the president authority to wage war. A liquor tax was created to finance the Army (which led to the Whiskey Rebellion that ironically, President Washington used the tax-financed militia to put down). The Indian confederacy did not last, and in 1794, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne built Fort Recovery and defeated another Indian war party at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, ultimately bringing an end to Northwest Territory Indian resistance and opening the way for the first stage of westward growth of the new American nation.

There is so much interesting history that relates directly to the story told in this book. It’s a compelling read for anyone interested in the early period of the American republic. My conversation with Colin Calloway reflects the stirring nature of his book, and the breadth of his knowledge. This book is an important American story, well told, and I highly recommend it.

Colin Calloway is the author of a number of excellent works, including one of my personal favorites, One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark. He is the John Kimball, Jr. 1943 Professor of History and Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth, where he has taught since 1990. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Leeds in England.

Length note – this interview is slightly longer than average at about 35 minutes. 

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Will War Ever End? Capt. Paul K. Chappell

978-1935073-02-4
Ashoka Books, Hardcover $14.95

“There is cause to hope, and believe, that there can be an end to war.”
–Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, U.S. Army (ret.), author of On Killing

Writerscast host David Wilk interviews first time author US Army Captain Paul K. Chappell, whose new book, Will War Ever End? A Soldier’s Vision of Peace for the 21st Century will be published in February, 2009.  The author talks about his personal background, why an active duty soldier who has served in Iraq has written a “manifesto for waging peace,” and explores some of the powerful ideas he covers in his new book.  In a wide ranging interview Captain Chappell makes clear that achieving peace is not just a cliche, discusses the practical ways we can all work toward an active state of peace on earth, and gives compelling evidence for his reasoning that human beings are not naturally violent.   In this interview the author shows why his powerful and original ideas are receiving so much attention among thinkers and activists for peace.  The book website is located at www.paulkchappell.com.

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