Army Rights a Wrong, Gives Medals to 5 Blacks for Their WWII Service

The Army honored five black soldiers Thursday who jumped at the chance to fight Nazi Germany 54 years ago but waited nearly a lifetime for full recognition.

The Army’s No. 2 general awarded medals to the five men at a ceremony in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes. They were among 2,221 African Americans who answered Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s emergency call to leave their support posts to serve on the front lines, becoming the first to integrate those white units.

The volunteers had to give up their noncommissioned officer’s stripes and serve as privates. At the end of the war, their lost rank was not restored. When the military decided to award the Bronze Star to all who had served as combat infantrymen, these men were not contacted.

Gen. William W. Crouch, the Army vice chief of staff, pinned the medals on the two who attended Thursday and handed them back their sergeant’s stripes.

The Bronze Stars went to former 1st Sgt. Vincent Malveaux, a native of Galveston, Texas, and now a resident of the Bronx; former Sgt. J.C. Wade of Irving, Texas; former Pfc. Andrew W. Nix Jr., of Philadelphia; former Tech. 5 Mate Montgomery of Chapman, Ala.; and former Sgt. Marteller Pollock Jr., of Atlanta. Malveaux and Wade attended; Dorothy Nix accepted for her husband.