Lesson of Fort Lawton Mustn't Be Lost

In August of 1944, at Fort Lawton, Seattle WA, an entire unit of drunk armed Black soldiers, rioted and stormed the barracks of unarmed defenseless Italian POWs, and beat them merciless, landing many Italians in the hospital, and lynched one, Private Guglielmo Olivotto,

More than 40 black soldiers were subsequently tried in the war's largest court-martial, prosecuted by a very capable young Leon Jaworski, who went on to prosecute at Nuremberg and Watergate. Twenty-eight of the Fort Lawton black soldiers were convicted of rioting, and two of the 28 were also convicted of manslaughter in the death of the Italian POW. None served more than four years in custody, but all of the convicted were dishonorably discharged.

Seattle journalist Jack Hamann's, who had no legal experience, and in a search for "perfect" justice, rather than "fair" justice, was able to build a grandiose appeal out of a molehill of distorted trivialities that he documented in his book ,On American Soil, which raised a chorus of anguish (and sold a lot of books) that in this PC society prompted the exoneration of all convictions and the bestowing of Honorable dIscharges. I'm sure the Black soldiers must have enjoyed a proud moment that they were heralded for beating defenseless men.

Now, Tony DeCesare, 93, living on Staten Island, a former US WWII GI, was in the same Hospital, when those 40 Italian POWs were brought in,all bleeding badly. These Italian POWs were unarmed, and were stormed at their barracks by US Black Soldiers armed with all kinds of weapons.

But what struck him more than anything else, the thing that haunted him for 64 years, was what a medical officer said to the men on the ward: "You patients, you haven't seen anything. Any of you talk, you're going to get court-martialed."

DeCesare repeats it again and again, trying to convey how much it struck him at the time and made him keep quiet about the event for so long. "I swallowed that for 64 years,

He held his tongue and carried the burden for 64 years until he was incensed by the "apology for the mistake of the convictions".

When he read the distorted revisionist "version" he was infuriated, and stepped forward to validate the original convictions.

WHERE is the Apology for all those Italian POWS beaten mercileely by a riotous crowd of thugs, for no reason, and

WHERE is the Apology for the Lynching of Pvt Guglielmo Olivotto ????

Why are we Celebrating a group of 40 Riotous Rogue Thugs??????

The more extensive version of the Facts of this Ignoble Chapter in my:

ANNOTICO Report : "Lynching of Italian POWs at Ft Lawson, in Seattle, WA, Gets Correction of Revisionism" dated April 26, 2008 , or

"A Staten Island Trombonist Breaks a 64-Year Silence About a Military Race Riot", Village Voice by Tony Ortega, April 22nd, 2008 http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0817,raw-deal,419583,1.html

Below you will find the Perpetrators become Victims Fairy Tale.

Original article:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/372304_robert26.html