First Native American to be awarded the Medal of Honor
Posted by: 
Max and 99
N 36° 04.018 W 095° 50.196
15S E 244528 N 3995100
Oklahoma Native Ernest "Chief" Childers, first Native American to be awarded the Medal of Honor
Waymark Code: WM8BW1
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 03/08/2010
Views: 16
Oklahoma native and Creek Indian Ernest Childers was born in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He was a Second Lieutenant in the 45th Infantry Division. His final resting place is at the Veteran's Field of Honors, in a crypt at the memorial. It is an absolutely beautiful memorial at Floral Haven Cemetery. Nearby is the Veteran's Carillon Tower, which plays Taps at 5:00 daily. You can find a sculpture of Lt. Childers, that is listed on the Smithsonian Art Inventory List, at Veteran's Park, a few miles SE of Floral Haven.
The coordinates listed above are for the crypt in which Lt. Childers is buried.
The coordinates for the plaque indicating this "first" are:
N 36 04.021; W 95 50.165
From the Home of Heroes website:
(
visit link)
CHILDERS, ERNEST
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 45th Infantry Division. Place and date: At Oliveto, Italy, 22 September 1943. Entered service at: Tulsa, Okla. Birth: Broken Arrow, Okla. G.O. No.: 30, 8 April 1944.
Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in action on 22 September 1943, at Oliveto, Italy.
Although 2d Lt. Childers previously had just suffered a fractured instep he, with 8 enlisted men, advanced up a hill toward enemy machinegun nests. The group advanced to a rock wall overlooking a cornfield and 2d Lt. Childers ordered a base of fire laid across the field so that he could advance. When he was fired upon by 2 enemy snipers from a nearby house he killed both of them. He moved behind the machinegun nests and killed all occupants of the nearer one. He continued toward the second one and threw rocks into it. When the 2 occupants of the nest raised up, he shot 1. The other was killed by 1 of the 8 enlisted men. 2d Lt. Childers continued his advance toward a house farther up the hill, and single-handed, captured an enemy mortar observer. The exceptional leadership, initiative, calmness under fire, and conspicuous gallantry displayed by 2d Lt. Childers were an inspiration to his men
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