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A webpage celebrating the legacy of a Black United States Army general who received a medal of honour for his service in the Vietnam War has been removed from the website of the Department of Defense amid the curb down on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies across US agencies by the Donald Trump administration. The web page for Charles C Rogers showed a 404 error on Sunday and the URL was also reportedly changed from ‘medal’ to ‘deimedal.’
As per a report by the Guardian, the issue first came to light when a screenshot of a Google page entry of the Department of Defense page was shared by writer Brandon Friedman on Bluesky. However, on trying to access the website of the Department of Defense, an error message saying “the page you are looking for might have been moved, renamed, or may be temporarily unavailable,” popped up.
Who Was Charles Rogers?
Rogers, the son of a coal miner from Claremont, Fayette County, in Virginia, was the highest ranking African-American to receive the Medal of Honor. The award was given to him by President Richard Nixon in 1970. The award was for the “actions that took place near the Cambodian border on November 1, 1968,” as per the West Virginia Hall of Fame.
The West Virginia Hall of Fame describes the incident in these words: “While manning a fire support base, members of the 1st Battalion, 5th Artillery, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Rogers, found themselves in a desperate struggle. Enemy forces launched an attack that penetrated the base perimeter. Wounded three times over the next two days, Rogers directed artillery fire and led counterattacks until the enemy force was repelled.”
As a Lieutenant Colonel commanding the 1st Battalion, 5th Artillery Regiment, he led the defense of Fire Support Base Rita against repeated North Vietnamese attacks in 1968. Despite severe injuries, he continued leading and personally engaged the enemy. He passed away in 1990 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
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Shamik Banerjee author
Shamik is a senior copy editor at Times Now News. He mostly covers world affairs and US news here. Shamik’s works have previously appeared in many rep…View More
