SECOND LIEUTENANT

VERNON J. BAKER

Vernon J. Baker is a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, and thus is the most decorated Conley family member in the 160-year military legacy.

Service History

World War, 1939-1945

Branch of Service: Army

Service Unit: Company D, 370th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division

Highest Rank: First Lieutenant

Dates of Service: 1941-1947

Service History Note: The veteran earned the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary heroism in action on 04/05/1945 and 04/06/1945, near Viareggio, Italy. The veteran became the first African-American World War II Medal of Honor recipient on 01/13/1997, with 6 others, who were awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously; the Medal of Honor was upgraded from the Distinguished Service Cross, which he had already earned.

Korean War, 1950-1953

Branch of Service: Army

Service Unit: 82nd Airborne Division; 8th Air Infantry Brigade, 11th Airborne Division

Highest Rank: First Lieutenant

Vietnam War, 1955-1975

Branch of Service: Army

Dates of Service: 1968

EARLY LIFE & CHILDHOOD

Baker was orphaned at only four (4) years by his parents’ untimely death in a car accident, he was raised by his grandparents in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

A pugnacious youth, he was raised primarily by his grandfather, Joseph Baker in Wyoming, a rugged outdoorsman who was an avid hunter. Joseph taught young Vernon how to shoot a rifle and other firearms, as well as how to handle hunting knives. Young Vernon hunted Elk, Antelope, with rabbit and other wild game. Baker graduated in 1939 from Clarinda High School in his grandfather's hometown of Clarinda, Iowa.  “He worked as a railroad porter, a job he despised, until his grandfather's death from cancer on Christmas in 1939” according to his obituary in the Spokesman Review, the Spokane, Washington newspaper.

WW2 COMBAT IN ITALY

On July 15, 1944, Lieutenant Baker and 7,000 other men boarded the SS Mariposa at Newport News, Virginia. During the two-week voyage to Italy, Baker and his platoon grew close. They arrived in Naples, Italy, on July 28, 1944. 

In the pre-dawn hours of April 5, 1945, Baker and the rest of Company C, First Battalion, 370th Infantry led an attack on Castle Aghinolfi, where the Germans had an artillery position and stronghold.  Baker led his troops through enemy mine fields and heavy fire to secure an occupied mountain objective. Of the 25 men in his platoon in Italy, 19 were killed, as Baker personally eliminated an observation post, which included three (3) enemy machine gun nests under heavy assault.

“Lieutenant Baker’s fighting spirit and daring leadership were an inspiration to his men and exemplify the highest traditions of the military service.” - Congressional Medal of Honor Society

KOREAN WAR

1950-1953

Baker continued his service in the U.S. Army, becoming a paratrooper in the 11th Airborne Division and serving in the Korean War.

BEGINNINGS IN MILITARY

He enlisted 1941, as World War II unfolded. He was assigned to the Quartermaster Corps of the 25th Infantry at Geiger Field in Spokane, Washington. He hungered for combat experience.

“Baker was sent to Camp Wolters, Texas, for basic training. Afterward, he was stationed with the Twenty-fifth Infantry, one of the historic Buffalo Soldier regiments, at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. While at Fort Huachuca, he quickly rose to the rank of staff sergeant. Because of his work ethic and abilities, he was nominated to attend officer candidate school in October 1942 at Fort Benning, Georgia.” -National Park Service website

Baker completed the 13-week officer-training course and was commissioned a second lieutenant on January 11, 1943. He was briefly assigned to Camp Rucker, Alabama, before being transferred back to Fort Huachuca, where he was a weapons platoon leader in the all-Black 370th Infantry Regiment in the 92nd Infantry Division.

In 1944, he landed at Naples, Italy, and quickly rose to command of Weapons Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 370th Infantry. His marriage to Helen Conley Baker deteriorated. 

VALOR DENIED

Although Baker was wounded in the arm, he did not notice his injury until he returned to camp. He spent the next two months recuperating from his wounds at a military hospital in Pisa, Italy.

His Captain recommended Baker for the Distinguished Service Cross, which he received on July 4, 1945, in a ceremony in Viareggio, Italy. He was denied Honors due to the ethnic bias common in that era.

Baker survived the war and remained in Italy on occupation duty until February 1947.

He was invited to return to Italy in April 1997 by the Italian government on the 52nd anniversary of the battle for Castle Aghinolfi. In village after village, people turned out to honor Baker and celebrate the black soldiers who freed them from the brutal Nazi occupation.

Baker was also reunited with Emelio Bertilini, a teenage partisan who had been wounded while on a mission with Baker in early 1945. The two men embraced in the town square in Monticello. “This is my man,” a joyful Baker said.

LATER YEARS

He retired from the military in 1968 after 27 years of service.

The Wyoming native spent his post-military years in service to his community in Wyoming. He became a local hero, working for the Red Cross for 20 years counseling military families. Among the places this work took him was Vietnam, counseling others during the height of that country's long war.

In 1986, he retired from the Red Cross and moved to rural Idaho. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 90 and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

COMMENTS

Colin Powell hailed the quiet, graceful infantryman for clearing the way for him to rise to the top of the American military. “I stood on the shoulders of men like Vernon Baker,” says Powell, a retired four-star general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who joined the Army in 1958.