When it comes to celebrating our Veterans the recognition goes beyond ethnicity and religion. Following are just a few people who fought for our country. I just want to say thank you to them and the men in my family who placed their lives on the line for us (U.S.).GREENBURY LOGAN a soldier in the Texas Revolution was born into slavery in 1799 in Kentucky but he was later freed by his white father, David Logan. After moving to Missouri, Logan married Judah Duncan, and the couple had five children. In Feb. 1831, Logan became one of the first African Americans to settle in Texas. Logan enlisted in the Texas army on Oct. 7, 1835, in order to fight for Texan independence. He fought in the Battle of Concepción, and in the siege of Bexar he received a wound that left his right arm crippled for life.
MARTIN ROBINSON DELANY born May 6, 1812 was an African-American abolitionist, arguably the first proponent of American Black Nationalism and the first African American field officer and an army physician in the United States Army. Delany was born free in Charleston, Virginia.
MAJ. ARTHUR CHIN (Chinese: 陳瑞鈿; pinyin: Chén Ruìtián; Cantonese: Chin Shui-Tin; born October 23, 1913 in Portland, Oregon) was a pilot and a World War II fighter ace to a Cantonese father and a Peruvian mother. Sparked by the Japanese invasion of China, Chin enrolled in flight school in 1932. Along with 15 other Chinese Americans, he left for China and joined the Guangdong (Cantonese) Provincial Air Force. Returning from his training in Munich Germany, he would destroy nine enemy aircraft from 1937-1939. In 1939 his plane was hit by enemy fire and crashed. He parachuted to safety but was badly burned. Nevertheless, after several years of surgery he returned to China in 1944 to fly supplies over the Himalayas, a route known as the "Hump".
He is now recognized as the America's first ace in World War II. A half-century after the war ended, the U.S. government recognized Chin as an American veteran by awarding him the Distinguished Flying Cross. Chin died September 3, 1997. Arthur Chin was immortalized October 4, 1997 at the Hall of Fame of the American Airpower Heritage Museum in Midland, Texas as the first American Ace and an officially recognized Chinese American World War II hero.
JAMES YEE, Army Captain formerly charged with sedition. James J. Yee (Chinese: 余百康 or 余优素福) is an American former United States Army chaplain with the rank of captain. He is best known for being subject to an intense investigation by the United States, but charges were later dropped. Yee, a Chinese American, was born in New Jersey In his appointed role as chaplain, Yee ministered to Muslim detainees held at Guantánamo Bay naval base purportedly related to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, some of whom are suspected al Qaeda terrorists and members of the Taliban.
Yee was awarded two Distinguished Service medals for his work there. When returning from duty at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, he was arrested on September 10, 2003, in Jacksonville, Florida and charged with five offenses: sedition, aiding the enemy, spying, espionage, and failure to obey a general order. He was then transferred to a United States Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina. The government did not name the country or entity for which it suspected Yee was spying. All court-martial charges against Yee were quietly dropped on March 19, 2004, and he was released to resume his duties. In April the noncriminal charges of adultery and storing pornography on government computers were dropped. He retired from the US military with an honorable discharge in January, but he is also seeking an apology.
BENJAMIN OLIVER DAVIS born July 1, 1877 in Washington, D.C. was an American general. After studying (1897-98) at Howard Univ., Davis served as a lieutenant in the Spanish-American War and in 1899 enlisted in the regular army as a private. He subsequently rose through years of service to become (1940) the first African-American general in the U.S. army. After the World War II he served as assistant inspector general.
GEN. BENJAMIN OLIVER DAVIS, JR. (born on December 18, 1912 in Washington, D.C.) was an American general, commander of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen. Davis was the first African-American general in the United States Air Force. During World War II Davis was commander of the 332nd Fighter Group, which escorted bombers on air combat missions over Europe. Davis himself flew sixty missions in P-39, P-40, P-47 and P-51 fighters.
He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1932. He was sponsored by Representative Oscar De Priest (R-IL) of Chicago, at the time, the only black member of Congress. He graduated in 1936, 35th in a class of 276. He was the academy's fourth Black graduate. When he was commissioned as a second lieutenant, the Army had a grand total of two black line officers - Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. and Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. His father was a U.S. Army officer, and at the time was stationed in Wyoming serving as a lieutenant with an all-black cavalry unit. Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. served 42 years before he was promoted to brigadier general.
YOUNG-OAK KIM, born 1919 was the first Asian American colonel to command a U.S. battalion Colonel was a highly decorated U.S. Army veteran who fought in World War II and the Korean War. He was a member of the U.S. 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team and led many critical battles into victory in Italy and France during World War II. He became the first officer from an ethnic minority to command an Army combat battalion in U.S. history while in Korea.
DANIEL KEN INOUYE (Japanese:ダニエル・イノウエ) (井上 born September 7, 1924) is a recipient of the Medal of Honor and currently serves as the senior United States Senator from Hawaii. He has been a senator for forty three years, a distinction which few other current senators have achieved, and is currently the third most senior member, after fellow Democrats Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy. He was also the first American of Japanese descent to serve in the United States House of Representatives and later the first in the Senate. He is a member of the Democratic Party and has continuously represented Hawaii in the United States Congress since it achieved statehood in 1959. Inouye was born in Honolulu, the son of Japanese immigrants n 1943 he enlisted in the Army and was assigned to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which became one of the most highly-decorated units in the history of the U.S. Army. During the World War II campaign in Europe he received the Bronze Star and also the Distinguished Service Cross, which was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor. Although he lost his right arm in the war he remained in the military until 1947, discharged with the rank of captain.
CHARLES BERNARD RANGEL (born June 11, 1930 in Harlem) is an American politician. He has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1971, representing the Fifteenth Congressional District of New York. His district was numbered the Eighteenth District from 1971-1973; the Nineteenth District from 1973-1983; and the Sixteenth District from 1983-1993. Rangel's district encompasses Upper Manhattan and includes such neighborhoods as Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, and part of the Upper West Side. He was born in New York City and served in the United States Army from 1948 to 1952, earning a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his service in the Korean War.
COLIN LUTHER POWELL General Colin Luther Powell, United States Army (Ret.) born April 5, 1937 was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving from January 20, 2001 to January 23, 2005 under President George W. Bush. Nominated by Bush on December 16, 2000 and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, Powell became the third highest ranking non-Caucasian government official in the history of the United States behind only Supreme court justices Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas.
He became the highest ranking African-American in the executive branch and was the highest ranking African-American in the military in the history of the United States.
MING E. CHANG business leader, rear admiral (retired). Chang served in the U.S. Navy for 34 years before retiring in 1990. He became the first Asian American naval officer to reach flag rank. He held a variety of cruiser and destroyer commands before becoming Department of the Navy Inspector General in 1987. After leaving the navy, Chang became vice president and corporate director for the Pacific region at Raytheon International and then president of MEC International, LLC.
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