Honor work of black GIs

Re “Backbreaking wartime work, lost to the jungle,” Column One, Dec. 30, 2008

I am writing regarding your excellent article on the horrible story of the black regiments more or less enslaved to build a crazy road across the terrible wilds, jungles, mountains and swamps of Burma during World War II, suffering from blood-sucking leeches, climbing mountains and slogging through swamps, while drenched by monsoon rains. More than 1,000 died, about a man for every mile (all this while fighting the Japanese).

When will these men be awarded their Medals of Honor (some posthumously)? Because these men were black, their lives were expendable. This article reminds us of what we owe.

I hope President-elect Barack Obama remembers them and invites the survivors to the White House for the inauguration. The famous Tuskegee Airmen finally won a bit of recognition; the same should go for these men whose very bones paved that road, which aided the war effort in supplying their fellow GIs at the other end.

Lou Nitti Jr.

Bloomington, Calif.