Wednesday,
December 05, 2007
The
ANNOTICO Report
At
What
was the "justification", for the Negro Non Combatants to make this
unprovoked attack???
The
Negro "soldiers" were irritated with discriminatory practices in town
(How was that the responsibility of the Italians?) .
The
Negroes were also resentful that the Italians had "privileges" that
the Italian American community was receptive, and that the American women found
the Italians "romantic and exotic".
For
those reasons, the Negroes RIOTED, and STORMED, and ARMED, ASSAULTED the
Italian Barracks.
From
Hamman's book: Staff Sergeant FRED J. PERATA, 28th
Italian Service Unit | Interpreter testified: I think they were trying to kill me. Im
surprised Im alive. Broke the second or third rib.
And then they stabbed me in the back.
Sergeant GRANT NOEL FARR, 28th Italian Service Unit | Company Clerk The faces of the men I saw in the doorways and in
the room were faces that were distorted, bloodshot eyes, lips drawn back over
their teeth, and a general appearance of frenzy and hate the nostrils were dilated.
Private First Class HAROLD MASON GOULD, 28th Italian Service Unit | Interpreter I was
confronted with a large Negro who was standing in the middle of the road and
who threw a rock at me, hitting me. I knew it wasnt
on the head. I told him I was an American. I was helpless at the time with a
busted arm and he said, Well, get the hell out of
here.
Out
of the more than 50 Negro Soldiers involved, after review of the facts, 44 African American soldiers were charged
with a variety of counts including riot and murder. In the end, two soldiers
had charges dropped, 13 soldiers were acquitted, and 28 were convicted. One
soldier was convicted of manslaughter in connection with the death of Olivotto.
Jack
Hamann's 2005 book "On American Soil." .. that got then Congressman
Jim McDermott involved, who pushed for a review by the Army's Board
for Correction of Military Records..... [The Court Martial was reversed]
Hamman engages in an enormous
litany of bizarre speculations, and thereby states that since there is a remote
possibility that these speculations could have happened, that the more logical
conclusions based on facts and testimony should be ignored..
Lt Col Leon Jaworski, the youngest
person ever admitted to the
As a matter of
fact, Hamman even doesn't try to claim that the Negro
'Dock workers in Uniform" didn't do what was claimed. His point was that
the process was "flawed", and doesn't even argue that a non flawed system (and where do we find that in this
imperfect world?), may not have reached the same result!!!!!!!!
This was strictly
overly Political maneuver, and a "sop"
to the African American Community.
When Perpetrators
are excused, The Value of the Victims is Diminished.
Of Guglielmo Olivotto, Jack Hamann writes: "Olivotto
was a quiet man, well read and devoutly religious. He was lean, five feet ten
inches and just 150 pounds. His eyes were dark; his hair was black and thick,
except for a bald spot on the crown of his head; he wore a dark mustache. A
thin scar slid down the right side of his scalp at hairline. He was never
married and had no children. He didn't drink or gamble. He had no interest in
being a soldier? (p. 11).
Who weeps for Guglielmo Olivotto ???????
But we have in
Tuesday's Seattle Times, a Nicole Brodeur, who besides
being young, has already adapted the bad habits of modern
journalist, to know very little about the subjects they write about, and
even care less to know, and deliver "distorted" articles as the
truth, obviously a Graduate of the Bush/Cheney School of Propaganda, following
closely in the steps of a first time author, who seems to had in mind more on
potential sales, than an even handed book.
Brodeur spends ALL her time
tearfully on the "Riotous MOB", who had NO provocation or
justification, and a Callous Indifference for Guglielmo
Olivotto, or the 32 Italians hospitalized, and the
remainder of the Italians that were terrorized.
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
The History Link.Org. The Encyclopedia of
Also
Check: http://www.jackhamann.com/
Too late, but still too little?
By Nicole Brodeur
Staff columnist
Tuesday, Decemb er 4, 2007
Better late than
never, I suppose.
Still, it took a
lifetime; 28 of them, to be exact. Just over a month ago, the Army admitted it
was wrong when it court-martialed 28 black soldiers for a riot that ended in the
lynching of an Italian prisoner at
The case was...
laid out in Jack Hamann's 2005 book "On American
Soil." ..Then Congressman Jim McDermott,... pushed for the review by the Army's Board for
Correction of Military Records..... [The Court Martial was reversed]
Hearts have been settled, and an entity has chastened itself....
Hamann ...[makes
a point that] the Army lifted the convictions without any new testimony.
The facts were enough. [But then what new testimony of actions 63 years ago ???] ....
How to make
amends for an injustice that most soldiers took, literally, to their graves?...
"This isn't
about the money. They want honor. They want to be made whole."
The only thing
marking the incident now is a stout, whitewashed column bearing the name of the
lynched soldier, Pvt. Guglielmo Olivotto,
who is buried where he died......
Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at
206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.
Riot involving African American soldiers
occurs at Fort
HistoryLink.org
Essay 7378
On
August 14, 1944, several dozen African American soldiers riot at
This
is the story that receives nationwide attention, that
Sixty
years later the Army's investigation conducted by Brigadier General Elliot D.
Cooke is declassified, and researcher Jack Hamann
discovers that what was alleged to have happened was not what really happened.
This file is largely based on his book, On
American Soil. As a result of Hamann's
book, four of the soldiers will petition the Army to reconsider their cases,
and in October 2007 Army's Board of Corrections of Military Records will
overturn the four convictions, leaving the way open for all the cases to be
reopened.
Also stationed at
Also present at
The Event
On August 14,
1944, the black troops were notified that the next day they would be shipped
overseas. That night there was a big party in their mess hall. Late in the
evening, three Italians returning from town encountered three African
Americans. All had been drinking. The groups clashed, supposedly leaving one
black American unconscious. A particular MP, a private,
came by and took the unconscious man away to the hospital. This MP claimed that
one of the soldiers blew a whistle and trouble then started. Supposedly angry
at the injury of one of their group, a number of black soldiers entered the
Italian bunkhouse and orderly room and began severely beating and stabbing the
Italians along with the four American translators present.
Italians ran out
of bed, hid under furniture, and ran out to hide in nearby woods. The barracks
and orderly room were wrecked. Thirty-two men were later hospitalized; a dozen
sustained severe injuries including three fractured skulls, penetrating knife
wounds, and shattered bones (p. 142). The following morning the same MP who had
transported the supposedly unconscious black soldier to the hospital, along
with another MP, discovered the body of Guglielmo Olivotto at the foot of Magnolia Bluff, hanging on wires
that were part of the obstacle course.
Questions
and Odd Occurrences
Aftermath
The death of an
Italian prisoner of war became an important issue to American military and
diplomatic officials. U.S. Forces were then battling German forces in
After a hasty
review of the facts, 44 African American soldiers were charged with a variety
of counts including riot and murder. Four of the defendants faced the death
penalty.
The charges were
prepared by Lieutenant Colonel Leon Jaworski, a
After the war,
the longer prison sentences were reduced by a clemency board, although some
soldiers served as long as 25 years. Guglielmo Olivotto was buried at the cemetery at
A Death
Far from Home
Of Guglielmo Olivotto, Jack Hamann writes:
"Olivotto was a quiet man, well read and devoutly religious. He was lean, five feet ten inches and just 150 pounds. His eyes were dark; his hair was black and thick, except for a bald spot on the crown of his head; he wore a dark mustache. A thin scar slid down the right side of his scalp at hairline. He was never married and had no children. He didn't drink or gamble. He had no interest in being a soldier? (p. 11).
Sixty-three
Years Later
In late October
2007, the Army's Board of Corrections of Military Records, after a year of
deliberation, ruled that the black soldiers court-martialed in the death
of Olivotto were unfairly denied access to their
attorneys and to investigative records and should have their convictions
overturned. This ruling applies to four soldiers who petitioned military
investigators (three of them, represented by their families, are no longer
living).
The soldiers petitioned after
the publication of Jack Hamann's book, with the aid
of Congressman Jim McDermott, Democrat from
The four soldiers
who petitioned were Booker W. Townsell, of Milwaukee,
Luther L. Larkin, of Searcy, Arkansas, William G. Jones, of Decatur,
Illinois, and Samuel Snow, of Leesburg, Florida. Of these four, Snow alone
is still alive. After serving a year in prison and being dishonorably
discharged, Snow returned to his home in
He is one of only
two of the black soldiers believed to be still alive. Snow was convinced that
the conviction was a racial injustice but nevertheless burned his Army
paperwork in order to hide it from his children.
Restitution will
include honorable discharges and back pay for the soldiers who petitioned.
Snow told a
reporter, "I'm rejoicing today. I'm not mad at nobody. I'm just as
satisfied as can be" (Martin).
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