The namesake of Richton Park’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 311 will receive a special honor, if State Sen. Michael E. Hastings has his way.
Hastings, D-Tinley Park, has advanced a resolution that would designate Aug. 2, 2017, as General Benjamin O. Davis Sr. Day. Hastings, a West Point graduate who served a decade in the military, said as the first African-American general, Davis’ service to our country was “extremely important.”
“This guy is one of the best of the best,” Hastings said. “He is reflective of Post 311, which is one of the “top VFW posts in the entire state.”
According to a biography on the post website, the brigadier general had a distinguished career, earning the Distinguished Service Medal along the way, as well as letters of commendation from the secretary of war and the quartermaster general.
Davis was born in 1877 in Washington, D.C., the son of a servant for Civil War General John A Logan. Davis was a high school cadet and attended Howard University in 1897 as a member of the black unit of the National Guard. During the Spanish-American War, he enlisted in the 8th U.S. Volunteer Infantry, and re-enlisted in the regular army as a private stationed in Utah, climbing the ranks to corporal and squadron sergeant major.
He eventually earned a regular commission and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the 9th Calvary in the Philippines. In 1905 he was promoted to first lieutenant, became a professor of military science and tactics at Wilberforce University. He was an attache in Monrovia, Liberia from 1909 to 1912. He was promoted to captain in 1915, the biography said. He returned to the Philippines for three years after the death of his first wife.
In 1919, after remarrying, he was a professor of military science and tactics at Tuskegee Institute. He became in instructor of the 372nd Infantry of the Ohio National Guard in Cleveland. For three years, he was an official army representative of an organization for relatives of slain WWI soldiers buried in European cemeteries.
In 1938, he was given his first independent command, with the 369th National Guard Infantry Regiment. After 42 years of service, he earned the rank of general in 1940. As brigadier general, he was the commander at Fort Riley, Kansas., with the 2nd Calvary Division.
Appointed to the Committee of Negro Troop Polices, he investigated racial incidents and worked to solve racial problems, the biography said.
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Hastings, who also served at Fort Riley, said he can relate to Davis, not only because of his military service, but also his work in the senate,
“I represent a very diverse district and for me, it’s important that we operate as one unit to get things done,” Hastings said.
Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.