Sergeant Johnson suffered more than 20 shrapnel, gunshot, and stab wounds as the enemy attempted to capture Private Roberts. A two-dozen-strong German raiding party cut through the barbed wire and nearly overran Johnson and Roberts’ position – but the two Harlem Hellfighters fought back against overwhelming odds. In the early hours of May 15, 1918, Sergeant Johnson of Albany, New York and Private Needham Roberts of Trenton, New Jersey manned their post in the trenches of the Western Front. Just one stood watch with Sergeant William Henry Johnson, namesake of Fort Johnson, Louisiana, which was redesignated in a ceremony here June 13, 2023. More than a century ago, as many as 150,000 New Jerseyans raised their right hands and served in the Great War. Johnson was awarded the French Croix De Guerre for his actions during WWI, making him the first American recognized by the French military, and he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart in 1996, the Distinguished Service Cross in 2002, and the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2015. Fort Johnson was renamed after New York National Guardsman Sgt. Louis Wilson, retired New York National Guard state command sergeant major, hit the anvil with a hammer at Warrior Field, June 13, 2023, designating Fort Johnson as the official name of the Army installation formerly known as Fort Polk. Hanson, center right, post command sergeant major and Mr. Gardner, center, commanding general, Fort Johnson Command Sgt. Hokanson, center left, Chief of the National Guard Bureau Brig. Army noncommissioned office of the year and a combat medic assigned to Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital U.S.
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