VFW Post 10789

In honor of Buffalo Soldier Day here at Fort Huachuca, we highlight the service of Medal of Honor recipient Corporal Isaiah Mays, 24th U.S. Infantry Regiment. H...is act of personal courage continues to inspire us. Geronimo’s surrender to the U.S. Army in 1886 is commonly regarded as the end of organized military campaigning in Arizona, but even with the end of the Apache threat, the region remained a wild and lawless place for decades. The U.S. Army, scattered in many remote camps across Arizona, continued protecting the hard-won frontier, in many cases from the very citizens they were sent to defend. The 1889 Fort Grant Payroll Robbery was one such incident, when Cpl. Isaiah Mays and other Buffalo Soldiers of the 24th Infantry would battle for their lives on a lonely Arizona road. Isaiah Mays was five years old when the Emancipation Proclamation freed him from slavery in Carters Ridge, Virginia. Eighteen years later, he enlisted In the U.S. Army. On May 11, 1889 Cpl. Mays and other members of Company B, 24th U.S. Infantry Regiment left Fort Grant, Arizona, escorting Army Paymaster Maj. Joseph W. Wham and a $29,0000 cash payroll (about $850,000 in today’s dollars) over the 60 miles of mountain roads to Fort Thomas. Near Pima, Arizona a dozen robbers stopped the column with a road block, then poured fire on the soldiers from concealed positions in nearby high ground. Several soldiers immediately became casualties, including the detail’s NCOIC, Sgt. Benjamin Brown who was seriously wounded. Cpl. Mays took charge and although wounded twice himself, continued to direct the defenders during a fierce, thirty-minute firefight until, exposed and running low on ammunition, he ordered them into the protection of a nearby ravine. With the guards driven off, the bandits reached the road, seized the payroll, and escaped on horseback, leaving the battered detail on an isolated road with numerous casualties. Although wounded in both legs Cpl. Mays went for help. Bleeding and barely able to walk, he reached a ranch two miles away where he reported the attack and organized a rescue party. Afterward, Maj. Wham reported that he had been in 16 battles in the Civil War, but stated: "I have never witnessed better courage or better fighting than shown by these colored soldiers.... ." In recognition of his courage and devotion to duty on that day, Cpl. Mays was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1890, his citation reading for gallantry in the fight between Paymaster Wham’s escorts and robbers. The gang, virtually all local residents, including Pima’s mayor, was easily identified and quickly arrested. Although a portion of the payroll money was recovered there was never a full accounting, some of the missing funds likely used to bribe the local jury, which acquitted them all of wrongdoing despite ample evidence implicating them. Cpl. Mays never fully recovered from his wounds. He left the Army in 1893 suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Unable to work steadily, his application for a military pension denied, he died a pauper at age 67 in the Arizona State Hospital. His remains were interred in an unmarked grave at the hospital cemetery until May, 2009, when he was reburied with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery nearly a century after that day on an Arizona road where he had given his last full measure in the service of his country and his comrades.

The D-Day invasion is significant in history for the role it played in World War II. It marked the turn of the tide for the control maintained by Nazi Germany; less than a year after the invasion, the Allies formally accepted Nazi Germany's surrender.

This is Ralph H. Johnson. Ralph jumped on a grenade, blowing himself in half, to save my daddy's life and the lives of two other Marines with him on a hilltop i...n Vietnam. My daddy recommended Ralph for the Congressional Medal of Honor, which he was awarded posthumously. Daddy was also influential in having the VA hospital in Charleston, SC named for Ralph. A destroyer, the USS Ralph Johnson, will launch later this year. Today is Memorial Day. Please remember it is not about the sales, surfing, swimming, and kick-off to summer. Today is about honoring sacrifice. The ultimate. See more

Remembering our own....never forgotten.