Harlem Hellfighters, who spent 191 days in the trenches of WWI, get special congressional honors

The Harlem Hellfighters spent more time in continuous front-line combat in World War I than any other similarly sized American regiment — 191 days in the front-line trenches. They suffered more casualties than any other U.S. regiment. Some 1,500 were killed, wounded or went missing, but none were known to be taken prisoner.

They were the first unit of the French, British or American armies to reach the Rhine River at the end of the war. Army publications have noted legend has it that it was the Germans who gave these adversaries the nickname Hellfighters, "Hollenkampfer."

Now, more than 110 years after their highly decorated World War I heroics, the Hellfighters on Wednesday finally get their national due as Congressional Gold Medal recipients.

The predominantly Black 369th Infantry Regiment is to be posthumously honored by Congress with the medal for its "unwavering dedication to military service, cultural contributions and bravery in the face of discrimination during World War I."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other congressional and military officials will be on hand at Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol for the medal presentation.

Wednesday evening, the French Embassy in Washington will hold a reception to applaud the recognition of the Hellfighters, which totaled over 4,000 soldiers, including at least 40 men from the Sea Cliff, Locust Valley, Oyster Bay and Glen Cove area.

Debra Willett, of Glen Cove, granddaughter of Harlem Hellfighter Sgt. Leader Leander Willett, is to accept the medal on behalf of all Hellfighter descendants and deliver brief remarks at the ceremony. She is to be joined by Col. Bryon Linnehan, present-day commander of 369th Sustainment Brigade of the New York National Guard.

"We’re just so excited. This means so much," Willett, 67, now of Brentwood, said in an interview Wednesday.

She said the message she hopes to deliver will be simple and hopeful, and that, "It’s never too late to acknowledge the sacrifice and dedication of people in service of the country.

New medal

The newly minted medal won't be publicly unveiled until shortly before the start of the afternoon ceremony at the Capitol. It is heading to the Smithsonian Institution for display there and in other exhibits; Bronze replicas will be made publicly available from the mint.

"It’s just such an incredibly fulfilling thing," said Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), a main sponsor of the legislation leading to the medal. He said he's seen a photo and called it "beautiful."

The presentation Wednesday comes four years after the "Harlem Hellfighters Congressional Gold Medal Act" was signed into law Aug. 25, 2021, by former President Joe Biden. The measure's other main sponsors included Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan, Bronx), and in the Senate, New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who is to also attend Wednesday's ceremony.

The processes of designing the medal, and striking it, has been underway since Biden’s signing the bill.

The Hellfighters had been overlooked for such congressional recognition, even as the Tuskegee Airmen, the name given to the first Black military pilots in WWII, and the Montford Point, the trailblazing first African Americans to be trained in the U.S. Marine Corps, came to join the list of about 200 gold medal recipients.

War service

The 369th Infantry began as the 15th Infantry Regiment headquartered in Harlem, essentially a Black American unit in a then-segregated Army and National Guard. When the U.S. joined the war in 1917, the unit’s commander lobbied hard for his soldiers to be shipped out to Europe, too.

But after arriving, the regiment was not integrated into U.S. military units, mostly relegated to supporting roles such as unloading ships, driving trucks and serving food. Until, that is, the French army — needing troops and willing to use Black American soldiers — took the regiment under its command, on loan, and provided it with French weapons and gear.

In all, the Hellfighters earned 11 French citations and a unit Croix de Guerre, and 170 soldiers were individually awarded the French Croix de Guerre. Private Henry Johnson, a former Albany rail station porter, was among the most celebrated.

As an aside, the unit also is widely credited as among the first to introduce jazz to France, a form of music that was unknown there at the time.

Upon their return to the States, the Hellfighters were cheered as they marched in a victory parade up Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

"Unfortunately, their fame quickly faded, and for nearly 100 years the remarkable story of the Harlem Hellfighters was largely erased from America’s national consciousness," the National Museum of African American History and Culture asserted in an article on its website several years ago.

Late recognition

Willett credits Suozzi for doggedly pursuing the medal legislation on behalf of her family and other Hellfighter descendants;

Both she and Suozzi explain the push was an offshoot of the congressman’s earlier help for her family in obtaining a belated Purple Heart for her Hellfighter grandfather, Leander, who had been stabbed with a bayonet and suffered from the effects of mustard gas. He died in the early 1950s.

Suozzi said that in the process, he came to learn more about the Hellfighters, including that dozens of them came from the Town of Glen Cove and surrounding communities. He determined it was time they got recognition they were due from Congress.