Perspective: This soldier was a 'hero among heroes.' So why was he denied a Medal of Valor?
William Butler of Salisbury, Md., was a celebrated hero of World War I. By Petula Dvorak Petula Dvorak Local columnist Email Bio Follow Columnist April 18 at 5:06 PM Why do we have to keep opening old wounds, removing Confederate statues, debating reparations for slavery, acknowledging history’s injustices?
A German raiding party had just rushed those American trenches and ripped through them in a bloodbath of slashing knives and blunt clubs. The young Americans who weren’t killed were taken prisoner. The final count was 10 dead Germans, according to World War I historian Emmett J. Scott. But that wasn’t it. Butler also took a German lieutenant prisoner, freed all the American prisoners and hustled them back to the safety of the trenches.
He was the first in line to be honored before that crowd because the War Department decided he was the most heroic of them all, even among the all-black 369th Infantry Regiment, known as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” none of whom were ever captured. “Bill Butler, a slight, good-natured colored youth, who until two years ago was a jack-of-all trades in a little Maryland town, yesterday came into his own as a hero among heroes,” the New York Tribune reported.
One of Maryland’s senators, Chris Van Hollen, wants the country to finally honor Butler. The Democrat introduced the World War I Valor Medals Review Act this week, legislation that would require the Defense Department to look at forgotten black war heroes like Butler.“The fact that the heroism of African American soldiers was ignored, that it was overlooked is obviously jarring,” Van Hollen said.
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