It took more than 50 years after his death for Staff Sgt. Ruben Rivers to receive the Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n
Now, the Association of the United States Army has released a graphic novel, \u201cMedal of Honor: Ruben Rivers,\u201d about his heroic actions with Able Company under the 761st Tank Battalion during World War II.<\/p>\n
Rivers\u2019 unit, more commonly known as the \u201cBlack Panthers,\u201d was assigned to Gen. George Patton\u2019s Third Army in Europe. Despite facing racial segregation and prejudice \u2014 particularly in the form of Jim Crow laws \u2014 the battalion of tankers answered the call to serve its nation.<\/p>\n
After forming in 1942, the 761st received its first official orders just after D-Day on June 9, 1944.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing additional training at Camp Shank in New York, Staff Sergeant Ruben Rivers boarded USS Esperance Bay with his unit on August 27, 1944, and made for the United Kingdom\u201d according to the National WWII Museum\u2019s records. \u201cIn Britain, the 761st was outfitted with the latest model of the Sherman, the M4A3 with a 76mm gun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rivers first landed on Omaha Beach in October of 1944. A month later, the tanker battalion was tasked with disrupting German industrial advances in the Saar region of France.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 16, Rivers\u2019 tank struck a mine outside Guebling, France. Although he suffered a severe leg injury, he refused medical evacuation and instead commanded another tank into battle just one day later.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepeatedly refusing evacuation, Staff Sergeant Rivers continued to direct his tank\u2019s fire at enemy positions beyond the town through the morning of 19 November 1944,\u201d his citation reads.<\/p>\n
When met with heavy enemy fire, Able Company commander Capt. David Williams ordered all tanks to seek cover. However, Rivers chose instead to provide cover fire for the company once he identified the location of the German antitank fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile doing so, Staff Sergeant Rivers\u2019 tank was hit, killing him and wounding the rest of the crew,\u201d according to his citation. \u201cStaff Sergeant Rivers\u2019 fighting spirit and daring leadership were an inspiration to his unit and exemplify the highest traditions of military service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just four days later, Williams recommended Rivers for the Medal of Honor posthumously. However, he knew it was unlikely to go through because Black soldiers at the time were not held in high esteem by the then-segregated Army.<\/p>\n
\u201cWilliams knew it was a long shot: no African American had been awarded a Medal of Honor for World War I or II at that point,\u201d the National Park Service notes. \u201cWilliams made it his life\u2019s mission to see that Rivers was not forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Jan. 13, 1997, Rivers\u2019 sister received his Medal of Honor from President Bill Clinton. Williams attended the ceremony, which saw seven African American soldiers receive the highest valor award for their service during World War II.<\/p>\n
Rivers was laid to rest in a cemetery in Lorraine, France.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Tune in next week for a better look at Rivers and the other Black Panthers of the 761st Tank Battalion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Army Times is reporting on one of the latest uses of new media for the Army. … Valor Friday<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":154109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,10,593,389,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-army","category-historical","category-medal-of-honor","category-valor","category-we-remember"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=154107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/154109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=154107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=154107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=154107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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