A Silver Star for Bravery

In honor of Black History Month I would like to tell the story of a man from Nyack who was part of the Greatest Generation.  I first worte about him in my column in the Nyack Villager.

Private First Class James “Saki” Oliver.    He left a safe rear echelon job to join the 99thInfantry Division and won three battle stars and high praise for his actions against German machine guns in early 1945.  Soon after that column appeared I received an email from an old-time Nyacker, who moved south years ago, asking me if “knew” James Oliver.   “Sure,” I answered, “Jim Oliver was a customer when I was a “gas-jockey” at the Getty Station on Route 59, next to the Hilltop Restaurant.”  

“Not that way,” my reader wrote back, “the real story of Jim Oliver and his service in the war, how he won a Silver Star.”  What followed were several interesting email conversations about the exploits of “Saki” and finally my friend sent me a book with an amazing World War Two War Story.

“Blood for Dignity,” written by David P. Colley, is the story of a little known piece of World War Two as seen through the 5th Platoon, K Company, 394th Regiment, and 99th Division.  The first black unit integrated with a white combat unit in the United States army since the Revolutionary War.   James Oliver, who was known for his stealth on the football field at Nyack  High School, was a major part of the story.   He appears on the cover of the book jacket, along with two of his combat buddies, proudly displaying him combat infantryman’s badge.

American military doctrine had long held that African-Americans were inferior fighters who fled under fire and lacked the intelligence, reliability, and courage of white fighters.  African-Americans were assigned to supply and support duties often given tasks of hard labor.   Jim Oliver was attached to the 377th Engineers Company.  They were assigned road building and clearing and assorted engineering duties with Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army.  It was great duty, but Jim Oliver was far from the combat that he had volunteered for.  The integration of African-American platoons with white combat units began near the end of the war with the pressing need for more fighting troops.  A call for volunteers was issued. Jim Oliver stepped forward, and was assigned to an all black platoon the 5th of K.  Jim was seen by his fellow soldiers as somewhat of a jokester, but he soon gained the respect of his comrades by being one of the best scouts and point-men in the company.   One of his comrades, Arthur Holmes, described Jim as “having a knack for spotting Germans and once took out
three of them preparing to ambush our squad.” 

Jim Oliver distinguished himself in the platoon’s first combat encounter with enemy just after crossing the Rhine. The 5th of K fought side by side with white soldiers at the Remagen Bridgehead as they drove back a still dangerous German army.   The platoon was part of an attacking group that had to clear the Germans from the bridge’s approaches and Jim Oliver was assigned to lead a group of soldiers around a menacing machine gun where they came in from behind to fling grenades at the position that slammed the enemy gunners with killing force.   For his actions that day Jim Oliver, the happy jokester from Central Nyack, was awarded the Silver Star. He may be the first African-American awarded that high combat honor in World War Two.  A subject I will have to research further.   For his service in defense of his country, Jim Oliver was awarded the American Theater Ribbon, EAME Theater Ribbon with 3 Bronze Stars, A Good Conduct Medal, World War Two Victory Medal and his Silver Star.

Jim Oliver, who after the war was part of the construction crews that built the Tappan Zee Bridge, really played an important part of American History.  He volunteered to fight and his performance, along with hundreds of African-American comrades, lay to rest the accepted white attitude of a century and half that African-Americans were cowardly and inferior fighters.  In fact, they proved
just the opposite and led to the integration of the combat units of the United
States Army that are still fighting and defending our country to this day.