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Medal of Honor recipient Vernon Baker was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery
with full military honors. Baker received the medal for battlefield valor
during World War II. In 1944, 2nd Lieutenant Baker and his platoon
came under enemy fire in northern Tuscany in Italy.
He and his men killed 26 enemy soldiers and destroyed 6 machine gun nests,
2 observer posts, and 4 dugouts. No African American soldiers were awarded
the Medal of Honor during World War II, but in 1997, after the Army conducted a study
to determine if there had been any racial disparity in the selection of Medal
of Honor recipients, Congress allowed President Clinton to award
Baker and seven other soldiers the Medal of Honor, making Baker the only
living black World War II veteran. Baker died at his home in Idaho on July 13,
2010, after a long battle with cancer at the age of 90.
