Shafted in Seattle

The ill treatment of veterans in the US continues, only this time the administration reached waaay back and poured salt in the wounds of a 2nd World War veteran.

A month after the Army said it made a mistake when it court-martialed Samuel Snow and 27 other black soldiers in World War II, the Pentagon has cut Mr. Snow a check for back pay, money withheld while he served a year in prison on a rioting conviction.

That should be a pretty hefty back pay cheque. It has, after all, been almost 62 years since the event which caused the problem in the first place.

Brace yourselves.

The check was for $725. No interest. No adjustment for inflation.

The army explained themselves thusly:

Col. Daniel L. Baggio, chief of media relations for the Army, said in an interview and in e-mail messages that he could not discuss Mr. Snow’s specific payment because of privacy laws. Colonel Baggio said a private of Mr. Snow’s grade was paid $50 a month in 1945.

He said Mr. Snow’s $725 appeared to reflect money withheld from his conviction on Dec. 18, 1944, to what would have been his likely discharge date, March 2, 1946. In an e-mail message, Colonel Baggio said the law controlling the board “does not authorize payment of interest, pain and suffering or damages.” If the back pay had been calculated at 8 percent for 61 1/2 years, compounded annually, Mr. Snow could have received more than $80,000. If the $725 was simply adjusted for inflation, it would amount to more than $7,700, a calculator on the Labor Department Web site shows.

What happened to cause this unbelievable generosity and the return of Mr. Snow's 1945 army pay at the 1945 rate?

In October, an Army board effectively overturned the convictions of Mr. Snow and the other former soldiers on rioting and other charges. The men, two of whom are known to survive, were imprisoned in many cases and dishonorably discharged after a riot at Fort Lawton here in August 1944 that led to the hanging death of an Italian prisoner of war held at the post.

The Army Board for Correction of Military Records specifically set aside the convictions of Mr. Snow and three others whose families requested reviews of the cases. The board found that the convictions were flawed because two lawyers defended 43 soldiers, the lawyers had 13 days to prepare for trial and, most critically, the prosecution withheld important evidence that could have potentially helped the defendants.

“All rights, privileges and property lost as a result of the conviction should be restored to him,” the board said of Mr. Snow. Rulings in the other cases were similar.

In 1975 Mr. Snow's records were adjusted to reflect a "General discharge under honorable conditions".

The case involving Samuel Snow and 42 other black soldiers has its own twists. Former NewsHour Seattle bureau chief Jack Hamann discovered a headstone which led him on a lengthy investigation. He overturned a story of racial discrimination and questionable behaviour on the part of army prosecutor, Lt. Col. Leon Jaworski, who would go on to become the special prosecutor who faced-down Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

Hamann discovered that at Fort Lawton, now Discovery Park near Seattle, Guglielmo Olivotto, an Italian prisoner of war, had allegedly been lynched during a riot by black troops.

The base itself was crammed with up to 10,000 troops returning from or embarking for wartime theatres in the Pacific. The black troops were employed as stevedores loading and unloading ships. Worse however, was the fact that there was a large contingent of Italian prisoners of war who enjoyed a great deal of freedom and liberty as a condition of parole. The black American troops were treated somewhat differently. From Publishers Weekly:

The Italians had freedom of movement and received hospitality in Seattle homes; the African-Americans were subject to massive discrimination and restrictions. The resulting tension led to escalating scuffles, which in turn led to a riotous assault by the GIs on the Italians' quarters and to the death of one Italian.

Hamann produced the results of his research in his book On American Soil. It was only as a result of Hamann's research that the US Army reviewed the case and, this October, set aside the convictions of all those tried and granted them full honorable discharges.

Samuel Snow, now 83, is the only survivor of that event to have received the whopping $725 that constituted his back pay at 1945 rates.

Injustice heaped upon injustice.