Black D-Day combat medic’s long-denied medal tenderly laid on Omaha Beach where he bled, saved lives

By JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press

OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) — A medal richly deserved but long denied to an African American combat medic wounded on Omaha Beach in the D-Day landings has been tenderly laid on the hallowed sands where he saved lives and shed blood. U.S. First Army soldiers held a ceremony in honor of Waverly Woodson Jr. on Friday on the beach where he came ashore and was wounded, and where hundreds of American soldiers were killed by withering fire in the June 6, 1944, landings in Normandy, northern France. The medal was awarded posthumously to Woodson this month — just ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day — following years of lobbying for more recognition of his achievement.