First Sioux to Receive Medal of Honor

[unhappycamper]

First Sioux to Receive Medal of Honor
Army News Service | By Carrie McLeroy | February 23, 2008

WASHINGTON - During the final allied offensive of the Korean War, Master Sgt. Woodrow Wilson Keeble risked his life to save his fellow Soldiers. Almost six decades after his gallant actions and 26 years after his death, Keeble will be the first full-blooded Sioux Indian to receive the Medal of Honor.

The White House announced this morning that Keeble will receive the Medal of Honor posthumously in a ceremony scheduled for 2:30 p.m. March 3.

Keeble is one of the most decorated Soldiers in North Dakota history. A veteran of World War II and the Korean War, he was born in 1917 in Waubay, S.D., on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Reservation, which extended into North Dakota. He spent most of his life in the Wahpeton, N.D. area, where he attended an Indian school. In 1942 Keeble joined the North Dakota National Guard, and in October that year, found himself embroiled in some of the fiercest hand-to-hand combat of World War II on Guadalcanal.

~snip~

"Guadalcanal seemed to be on his mind a lot," Russell Hawkins, Keeble's stepson, said. "His fellow Soldiers said he had to fight a lot of hand-to-hand fights with the Japanese, so he saw their faces. Every now and then he would get a far-away look in his eyes, and I knew he was thinking about those men and the things he had to do." At Henderson Field on the South Pacific Island, Keeble served with Company I, 164th Infantry - the first Army unit on Guadalcanal.

"I heard stories from James Fenelon, who served with him there, and he would talk about how the men of the 164th rallied around this full-blooded Sioux Indian whose accuracy with the Brown Automatic Rifle was unparalleled," Hawkins said. "It was said he would go in front of patrols and kill enemies before his unit would get there."


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,162632,00.html?wh=wh

[xchrom]

1. recommend

:applause:

[mikekohr]

2. Native Americans Volunteer For Service More Than Any Other Ethic Group

In spite of hundreds of years of genocide, dispossession, and injustice, Native People serve in higher percentage than any other ethnic group. I believe Hispanics are a close second and it should be noted that most Hispanics are also descendants of this Hemisphere's Native People.

Wopila tanka hecha yelo!

Many thanks for this post that honors the sacrifice and honor due not only Master Sargent Keeble and Native Veterans but ALL veterans that have stood up and stepped forward when our nation called.

Respectfully,

mike kohr
International Brotherhood Days
http://www.brotherhooddays.com

[unhappycamper]

3. Nice blog, Mike. n/t