More than fifty years after his actions in World War Two and Korea, Master Sergeant Woodrow Wilson Keeble was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Master Sergeant Woodrow Wilson Keeble was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on March 3, 2008. Master Sergeant Keeble was awarded the medal posthumously, having died in 1982.
Keeble is a Native American and the first full-blooded member of the Sioux Indian Nation to receive the Medal of Honor. He was a volunteer member of the North Dakota Army National Guard when World War Two broke out (Native Americans are exempt from the draft) and soon found himself with the first US Army unit at Guadalcanal. There, a master of the redoubtable BAR, he became something of a legend. Keeble chose the Army as a career and it was later in that career, while involved in the Korean conflict that he performed the actions for which he is finally being recognized. With all of his companies officers killed or incapacitated, Master Sergeant Keeble led his company of over a hundred men in successive assaults for a Chinese-held hill in 1951. During this assault he was wounded at least five times by no less than 83 grenade and shrapnel fragments but refused to retreat or give up command.
Master Sergeant Keeble was recognized in 1951 as a candidate for the MOH was instead awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and later the Silver Star. His family and his nation were finally given his MOH that his actions earned some 26 years after his death.
