Highest-Ranking Black Medal of Honor Recipient Erased in Pentagon DEI Purge

The latest casualty in the Department of Defense's sweep of all things related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is Charles Calvin Rogers, a Black Army officer who received the Medal of Honor for his gallant defense of a firebase near South Vietnam's border with Cambodia in 1968. He'd spent his entire career challenging discrimination in the Army.

The DoD's popular "Medal of Honor Monday" series spotlighted then-Lt. Col. Rogers' story in a November 2021 feature. Over the weekend, the story was taken down and its URL altered to include the letters "DEI" in the web address, a change that author and Afghanistan veteran Brandon Friedman first noted on BlueSky. 

The changes were likely part of President Donald Trump's executive order to end all "mandates, policies, programs, preferences and activities" related to DEI across the federal government. As of March 17, the page and URL were restored following a broad outcry. 

"The story was removed during auto removal process," a defense official told Military.com

Charles Rogers was born in 1929 in West Virginia. His father served in the U.S. Army as a mail clerk during World War I and, like many West Virginia natives, returned home to work in the state's coal mines. Rogers attended a segregated school during his early years, where he excelled academically, played football and was a member of the drama club. He would later attend the all-Black West Virginia State University under an ROTC scholarship, graduating with a mathematics degree and entering the Army in 1951.

Rogers' first assignment was as an officer for an all-Black artillery unit in Germany, one that was still segregated until six months after his posting there. Even after the Army was fully integrated, he still experienced discrimination and nearly resigned over it.

"Discrimination has been a fact of life in the Army and American society throughout my career, he later said. "It took until the late '50s or early '60s until changes for the better began to be noticeable."

Rogers commanded two batteries before he was sent to his battalion's S-3 (plans, training and operations). After that, he was promoted to major and sent to the Army's Command and General Staff College, graduating in 1964. He was sent to Germany to train the 24th Division's artillery before taking his first battalion command at Fort Lewis, Washington.

In July 1967, Rogers was deployed to Vietnam in command of 1st Battalion, 5th Artillery, 1st Infantry Division, where he would spend the next two years. On Oct. 31, 1968, his unit was stationed at Fire Base Rita, strategically located near the Cambodian border and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. U.S. and South Vietnam troops were still pushing the North Vietnamese back from their successes during the Tet Offensive earlier that year and disrupting the Viet Cong's ability to move on targets in the South.

As the day turned to night, Rogers knew there was increased activity along the border, but he could not fire into Cambodia -- all he could do was wait. He didn't have to wait that long. He couldn't see the enemy approaching the base, digging in and waiting to penetrate the outer perimeter with bangalore mines. At 3:30 in the morning on Nov. 1, the attack finally came.

Amid the call of bugles, North Vietnamese regulars hit the base with a sudden hail of mortars, rockets and RPGs, followed by the first of three massed human wave attacks. As the enemy penetrated their perimeter, Rogers moved through the fusillade of bullets, fragmentation and explosions to get his dazed men back on their guns. They were firing horizontally to prevent the masses of men from overrunning the artillery.

Rogers was knocked to the ground by an explosive that peppered his body with shrapnel, but quickly got back up and led a counterattack against enemy soldiers who had reached his howitzers. Though wounded once more in that counterassault, he pressed the attack to repel the enemy. He had just enough time to reestablish his defensive positions before the next wave came at them.

This time, the attack was directed at another area of the base. Rogers directed his artillery gunners at the oncoming enemy before leading another counterassault to clear the communists from that part of the fire base. Encouraged by his leadership, Rogers' men began to rally, fighting through the night as he directed their fire and urged them on.

At dawn came the third human wave, and once again, Rogers moved to counter it. When one of his howitzers was knocked out by a mortar, he jumped in to man the gun like a regular crewman, firing rounds into the oncoming mass of enemies. While loading the howitzer, he was struck by a mortar and could no longer physically continue, but still provided direction and encouragement. With the coming day, the U.S. regained its airpower and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) was forced to retreat.

On May 14, 1970, President Richard Nixon presented the Medal of Honor to Rogers at a White House ceremony for his gallant leadership in defending Fire Base Rita. He then returned to combat duty in Vietnam. Rogers' storied Army career continued until his retirement as a major general in 1984. He also received the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, four Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.

"We still have and will have what the Defense Department describes as institutional racism," he told the Newport News Daily Press in 1975. "It's there. In many cases, it's inadvertent. In some cases, it's deliberate. We're never going to eliminate racism in the Army. As long as we do everything to reduce it, we're making some legitimate progress."

He became a minister in his post-military career and died of prostate cancer in 1990. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

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