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Deleted profiles in courage: Maj. Gen. Charles Rogers [1]
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Date: 2025-03-25
Today is National Medal of Honor Day. You can read about the heroism of any Medal of Honor recipient on Department of Defense webpages… maybe.
As part of efforts mandated by draft dodger Donald Trump and wayward axe thrower Pete Hegseth to delete all mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from military websites, thousands of pages detailing the heroism of women and minorities in the military were taken down, though you could still read snippets from those pages in Google search results.
Drew F. Lawrence for Military.com reports that
So it’s anybody’s guess if today you can find anything about, for example, Major General Charles Calvin Rogers on *.mil or *.gov websites. General Rogers was the highest ranking black recipient of the Medal of Honor.
Several low ranking soldiers and Marines earned the Medal of Honor with their lives by absorbing the explosion of a grenade, a quick thinking sacrifice that removed their comrades from immediate danger.
At the rank of corporal and above, we usually find Medal of Honor recipients who managed to survive for at least several hours after serious injury and continued to distinguish themselves with sustained heroism, like Sergeant Alfredo Gonzalez, whom I wrote about last week.
In 1968, Charles Rogers, at the time a lieutenant colonel commanding 1st Battalion, 5th Artillery, 1st Infantry Division, “was wounded and came under repeated attack by the North Vietnamese Army,” Bill Chappell writes for NPR. Rogers not only survived the initial wound but went on to become a rare living recipient of the Medal of Honor, rise into the flag officer ranks and retire.
But a Department of Defense profile of Rogers, who died in 1990, was taken down on Friday [March 21]. It comes as the Trump [mal]administration has pushed to remove references to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across the federal government. The removal prompted outrage over what many saw as a disrespectful erasing of history. As of Monday afternoon [March 24], the page had returned to the website. The Defense Department "has restored the Medal of Honor story about Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers," a spokesperson told NPR in an email, adding, "The story was removed during auto removal process." The agency did not provide details about the removal process, or why the page's URL was briefly altered to add the letters "dei."
Chickenhawks like Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have come up with lots of cute meanings for the DEI acronym, with one of the most galling being “didn’t earn it.” But Rogers more than earned his Medal of Honor, which was presented to him by President Richard Nixon (R, 1969 — 1974). Rogers’s Medal of Honor citation has been described on Reddit as “f***ing insane.”
On November 1, 2021, Katie Lange wrote a profile on Rogers for DOD News as part of the Medal of Honor Monday series. I can read it now but I can’t promise you will be able to. The page has a disclaimer: “You have accessed part of a historical collection on defense.gov. Some of the information contained within may be outdated and links may not function.”
The profile provides a more readable and more engaging account of Rogers’s heroism and a little more about his life before and after 1968 than the Medal of Honor citation can give.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, America and the world underwent sweeping changes, and Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers served with distinction throughout. Renowned for his exceptional leadership during a fierce Vietnam battle, he earned the Medal of Honor, exemplifying the warrior ethos and warfighting excellence. Rogers was born on September 6, 1929, and grew up with his brother and three sisters near the coal-mining town of Claremont, West Virginia. His father, a coal miner and World War I veteran, likely sparked Rogers’ drive to serve, instilling a legacy of duty and readiness. At Dubois High School, Rogers distinguished himself as a scholar and leader, consistently earning honor roll status, starring as the football team’s quarterback, and serving as student body president. Graduating in 1947, he pursued a mathematics degree at West Virginia State College (now University), commissioning into the Army via ROTC in June 1951. His early career unfolded in artillery commands during a transformative period for the Army. Rising through the ranks, Rogers attended the Army Command and General Staff College as a major, graduating in 1964. He then trained an artillery unit in Germany—his second tour there—before taking his first battalion command at Fort Lewis, Washington.
An article by Blake Stilwell for Military.com mentions a few important tidbits that were presumably not originally included in Lange’s profile.
Rogers' first assignment was as an officer for an all-Black artillery unit in Germany, one that was still segregated until six months after his posting there. Even after the Army was fully integrated, he still experienced discrimination and nearly resigned over it. "Discrimination has been a fact of life in the Army and American society throughout my career, he later said. "It took until the late '50s or early '60s until changes for the better began to be noticeable." Rogers commanded two batteries before he was sent to his battalion's S-3 (plans, training and operations). After that, he was promoted to major and sent to the Army's Command and General Staff College, graduating in 1964. He was sent to Germany to train the 24th Division's artillery before taking his first battalion command at Fort Lewis, Washington.
In 1967, Rogers was given command of an infantry division and deployed to Vietnam. I go back to Lange’s profile for DOD News.
On October 31, 1968, then-Lt. Col. Rogers led his artillery unit at Fire Support Base Rita in southern Vietnam, near the Cambodian border and the Ho Chi Minh Trail—a key North Vietnamese supply route. That evening, he observed enemy activity across the border but held fire under engagement rules. At 3:30 a.m. on November 1, the North Vietnamese Army unleashed a barrage of mortars, rockets, and grenades, breaching the base’s perimeter. Rogers sprang into action, leading his battalion’s counterattack from the front. Holding the Line Braving exploding shells, Rogers rallied his stunned crewmen to return fire with their howitzers against a larger enemy force. Wounded by an explosion, he pressed on, leading a ground assault against enemy troops who had overrun a howitzer position, driving them back and eliminating several. Despite a second wound, he refused aid, focusing instead on restoring the defensive line. When the enemy breached another section, Rogers directed artillery fire and spearheaded a counterattack, inspiring his men through the grueling fight. At dawn, facing a third assault, he joined a faltering howitzer crew, repairing their gun under fire until a third wound sidelined him physically—yet he continued to direct and motivate his unit. Rogers’ valor repelled the enemy, who retreated with heavy losses, while 12 U.S. soldiers perished and dozens were injured. His leadership upheld the unit’s standards and secured the base.
Rogers returned to the United States to heal. He received the Medal of Honor in 1970 and graduated from the Army War College in 1971. Then he returned to Vietnam for more combat duty.
He led additional commands and high-level assignments, culminating in Germany, retiring in 1984 as a major general after 32 years of exemplary service. In civilian life, Rogers became a Baptist minister, remaining in Germany to support troops spiritually. He died of prostate cancer on September 21, 1990, at age 61, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, survived by his wife, Margaret, and daughters Jackie, Linda, and Barbara. Rogers’ legacy endures through honors like his induction into West Virginia State University’s ROTC Hall of Fame and the Army Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers Memorial Bridge in Cotton Hill, West Virginia, renamed in 2013 from its 1999 dedication.
In an interview to the Newport News Daily Press in 1975, Rogers said “We're never going to eliminate racism in the Army. As long as we do everything to reduce it, we're making some legitimate progress.”
Deleting the history of war heroes like General Rogers aggravates, not reduces, racism in the Army.
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