Pvt. George Watson

Private George Watson was from Birmingham, Alabama. Attended basic training at Camp Lee, Virginia. Then to Charleston, South Carolina and departed overseas from Newport News, Virginia on December 27, 1942 aboard the USS Hermitage to Australia via the Panama Canal with 10,000 troops aboard that disembarked at Brisbane on January 31, 1943. Moving to Brisbane, he was assigned to the Dutch freighter, commandeered into American service, the s'Jacob. A member of the 29th Quartermaster Regiment. Watson drowned rescuing others when his ship, the Dutch Steamer s'Jacob near Porlock Harbor off Papua New Guinea, on March 8, 1943, when the ship came under sudden attack by Japanese bombers that sunk it.

Watson's ship was badly damaged by Japanese bombs and the crew were ordered overboard. Watson remained in the water and helped other soldiers who could not swim reach the life rafts. It is thought that Watson was unable to get clear of the turbulence when the ship went down, and he disappeared beneath the waves.

Watson is remembered on a memorial at the Manila American Cemetery, a Memorial in the Philippines and by George Watson Memorial Field at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Private Watson was the first black solider to receive the Distinguished Service Cross during World War II. He was 28 years old, had been drafted into the Army and was assigned to the 29th Quartermaster Regiment. The Alabama Veterans Memorial Foundation honored Pvt. Watson with a special ceremony and commemorative plaque which was placed in the Grand Memorial courtyard on Memorial Day, in 2003.

At a crowded White House ceremony on 13 January 1997, President William J. Clinton bestowed the Medal of Honor on seven African American veterans of World War II. Only one of the recipients was still alive to receive his award in person. The others had died during the war or in the decades since.

His widow, Nan Hood Watson, died in 1995. James E. Guilford, Jr of Boston, Massachusetts was one of the men rescued by Watson and has since located Watson's stepdaughter Kay Francis Adams of Cleveland, Ohio, who was five years old when Watson died.

Private Watson's Medal of Honor resides in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum at Fort Lee, Virginia.

Bio and Image: Pacific Wreck Database and bhamwiki