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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Opinion

Clarification

 Some callers challenged a comment in Sunday’s op-ed column by David Freed, reprinted from the Los Angeles Times, that “not a single African-American soldier received the Medal of Honor in World War II.”

 In the early 1990s, a team of military historians found no evidence that any black World War II serviceman had been nominated for the honor. In 1993, U.S. News & World Report magazine identified and told Congress about seven such soldiers who would have been qualified and might have been nominated. The Medal of Honor was formally awarded to all seven on Jan. 13, 1997, not “in” World War II, but half a century after it.

 The last surviving member of that group, Vernon J. Baker, lived in St. Maries. Baker died in July and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.