Justice delivered, 64 years later, by Guy Tridgell, Southtown Star, October 31, 2008

Back pay for widow, by Editorial Staff, Miami Herald, October 27, 2008

Final payment delivered in case of wrongly-accused soldier, by Nicole Brodeur, Seattle Times, October 24, 2008

Back pay for soldier’s widow, by William Yardley, New York Times, October 23, 2008

64 years later, Army repays wrongfully-convicted veteran, by Megan Chuchmach, ABC News, October 23, 2008

Veteran’s family gets back pay with interest, by Michael Schneider, Associated Press, October 23, 2008

Wrongly-accused WWII troops to get back pay, by Kelly Kennedy, Army Times, October 16, 2008

Families of wrongly-convicted soldiers given back pay, by Casey McNerthney, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 15, 2008

Army pays for old injustice, Orlando Sentinel, October 16, 2008

Wrongly accused WWII troops to get back pay, Army Times, October 16, 2008

Nelson wants money for Snow's family, Daily Commercial, October 16, 2008

Families of wrongly convicted soldiers given back pay, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 15, 2008

Ft. Lawton soldiers get back pay, Seattle Times, October 15, 2008

Statement of U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott

Statement of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson

OCTOBER 31, 2008

Roy Montgomery’s payday came late … 64 years late.

More than six decades after his meager military wages were withheld while he sat behind bars, Montgomery finally received a paycheck yesterday from one of the U.S. Army’s highest-ranking officials.

At his daughter’s home outside Chicago, Montgomery, welcomed Assistant Army Secretary Ronald James, who flew in from Washington, DC.

This is the Army’s honor,” said James. “It is really important for the Army to do the right thing.”

“This is a great satisfaction,” Montgomery told reporter Guy Tridgell of Chicago’s Southtown Star. “Now I can forget about the whole thing. That’s all I ever wanted to do.”

Exactly one week earlier, on October 23, 2008, the family of veteran Samuel Snow received a similar check in the offices of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

“This is an American tragedy, along with an American success story,” said Nelson, who presented the check to Snow’s family at his office in Orlando. “It’s the story of a young man who served his country and was not treated right by his government.”

Ray Snow compared his late father to the Biblical hero Job — an upright man who was punished for no good reason.

“A good, upright man who was struck down ... yet he held on,” Ray Snow, 56, a school teacher, said after his family received the check. “He held onto to the belief that this could be done.”

Snow and Montgomery were defendants in the largest and longest U.S. Army court-martial of World War II. 43 soldiers—all of them African-American—were charged at Seattle’s Fort Lawton with rioting and with the lynching of an Italian prisoner of war; 28 were eventually convicted. On October 26, 2007, the US Army’s highest appellate court unanimously overturned the verdicts, based on evidence revealed in the book, On American Soil. The Army Board for Correction of Military Records also reinstated the soldiers’ honorable discharges, and ordered that they—or their estates—be issued back pay.

Two weeks ago, President George W. Bush signed legislation authorizing the Army to add more than sixty years of interest—compounded annually at six percent—to the 1940s-era paychecks. 97.5% of both Snow’s and Montgomery’s checks represented the compound interest.

The authors of On American Soil have only been able to locate families of 12 defendants; eight of those families have completed the necessary paperwork to receive their loved ones’ paychecks, plus interest. The Army is still hoping to hear from descendants of 16 other soldiers entitled to back pay.

“We’ll be lucky if we can find half of them,” James told the Southtown Star. “I hope I am wrong, but I don’t think we will ever be able to say, ‘Mission Accomplished.’”

“The Army has provided incredible opportunities for African-Americans, but we dropped the ball,” James said. “We ignored our own values.”