Who was the first black man to win the medal of honor?

Answer 1

The first airman to earn a Medal of Honor was Second Lieutenant Frank Luke, "the Arizona Balloon Buster". This was during WWI. The twenty year old Luke was taken out for a familiarization flight over the lines when he first joined the 27th Aero Squadron. He left the flight and finished the mission flying alone, and when he returned to his field claimed to have destroyed an enemy aircraft. His commander and fellow pilots were extremely skeptical of this claim, and no report of a destroyed plane was forthcoming from front line observers, so Luke was given no credit on his claim. This irritated Luke and he devised a scheme to attack German observation balloons. These were large gasbags filled with highly flammable hydrogen gas. They were captive balloons, secured to winches on the ground by cable, and hauled down at the first sign of an attack. Balloon observers were the only WWI airmen to have parachutes, as there was room for one in their wicker basket gondolas slung below the balloon. They were heavily defended by flak cannon and machine guns ringing their positions and often had flights of fighters overhead for additional protection when they were aloft. The Germans liked to run up these "drachen" at dawn and dusk, when visibility was best. Luke reasoned that exploding these gasbags with incendiary bullets would have to be observed.

Luke had been suspect because he was a German-American. He teamed with another German-American pilot who had also been subjected to endless visits from Federal agents, Joe Wehner. Together they went on a short but spectacular spree of destroying German balloons and airplanes. Wehner shot down one Fokker D.VII and five balloons in just three days of combat before he was killed flying cover for a Luke attack. Wehner was twice awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Luke destroyed eighteen enemy aircraft in seventeen days. But he only flew ten times, on eight of those days. No other WWI aviator did anything like this. Luke was the only WWI airman recommended for the Medal of Honor while the war was ongoing. Rickenbacker was awarded his in the late 20s, and two fliers seeking to resupply the "Lost Battalion" had previous Distinguished Service Crosses upgraded to the Medal of Honor in 1922.

Luke's last attack was on September 29, 1918, while the Meuse-Argonne Offensive was underway. He was under arrest for previous insubordination, but took off against orders. He dropped a note over an American balloon company directing their attention to three German balloons, which he then proceeded to destroy. He was apparently shot through the stomach while attacking the first, but pressed on. After destroying the third, he put the nose of his plane down and machine-gunned a column of German troops passing through a French village, then crash landed in the cemetery at the edge of town. He climbed out of the wreckage and took a drink from a brook running by the cemetery. Then he drew his pistol and went down fighting German troops closing in to take him prisoner.

Since you asked this in the World War Two category, perhaps you meant to inquire about the first award to an airman of that later conflict. I believe this would be Jimmy Doolittle, for leading his raid on Japan in April 1942.

Answer 2

The First Medal of Honor was awarded to Civil War Private Jacob Parrott

Answer 3

William Carney

Answer 4

Francis c hammond