[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 59 (Thursday, May 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4590-S4591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO S. SGT. RUBEN RIVERS

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, if you happened to have read the current 
edition of U.S. News & World Report, there is a front page story about 
some very heroic people. One of those persons is from Oklahoma.
  Many years ago, back in 1944, when we were trying to push the Germans 
out of France and the Alsace-Lorraine area, it was the 761st Tank 
Battalion that was sent over to try to remove, to extract the Germans 
from that area.
  There is one thing that was unique about the 761st Tank Battalion. 
All of the soldiers in that battalion were black. They called them the 
``Black Panthers.''
  One of the bright young soldiers was a staff sergeant by the name of 
Ruben Rivers. Ruben Rivers was born in Tecumseh, OK, a very quiet, 
soft-spoken person, the kind who everybody liked. When he went into the 
service, his desire was to see combat. Back then, even though we had 
1.2 million blacks serving in World War II, less than half of them saw 
combat, and not one of them got the Congressional Medal of Honor, in 
spite of the fact that they had performed all kind of heroic acts.
  Back in 1990, I was serving over in the House, and it was called to 
my attention by some surviving members of his family some of the things 
that he had done. When I heard this story, I called his commander, 
whose name is Capt. David Williams, retired, who was getting quite 
elderly, and I asked him to verify the story. This is what Ruben Rivers 
had done.
  He was a tank driver. He had won a Silver Star by walking through a 
minefield and putting a chain on fallen chains and backing out with 
this tank to detonate all of the mines, taking great personal risk in 
doing this.
  A few weeks later--it was November 14, 1944--Ruben Rivers was driving 
the lead tank, as he always wanted to do. He went through a minefield 
in order to detonate the mines so that the 761st Tank Battalion Group A 
could get through.
  When he did this, he went over several mines. One mine went off, and 
it blew up the undercarriage of his tank and severely wounded Ruben 
Rivers. In fact, the bone in his right leg was penetrated all the way 
through. You could see the shiny white bone.

[[Page S4591]]

  Of course, Captain Williams came over, and he, with the medic, tried 
to extract him and said, ``Take the morphine. You have done enough for 
America. We're sending you back.'' He said, ``No, my job isn't done 
yet.'' He got out of the tank and got in another tank, hobbling over 
with some help, with one leg, got on the turret and went out into the 
clearing. The Germans surrounded them from the north. They had our tank 
battalion completely pinned down where they could not penetrate. Ruben 
Rivers, in order to find out where they were, drew fire from them. He 
drove this tank out into the opening. All of them fired, and we were 
able to go in with our artillery and wipe out the German tank 
battalion. Of course, Ruben Rivers was dead.
  Right after that Capt. David Williams went to the Army and put him up 
for the Congressional Medal of Honor. I will not go into detail as to 
what some of the responses were, but they kind of laughed. They said, 
``Well, I don't think that's going to happen.'' In fact, the paperwork 
mysteriously disappeared, not once, but twice, so that nobody had the 
record on record of Ruben Rivers.
  Capt. David Williams, as I mentioned, is getting quite elderly. He 
said, ``I'm going to live long enough to see that Ruben Rivers is 
posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.''
  Back in 1990, I introduced a bill in the House of Representatives and 
told the same story I am telling today, except in perhaps a little more 
detail, to waive the statute of limitations past 1952 so the President 
could make that award. The medal has to come from the President of the 
United States. Then-President George Bush said he would do it, after he 
had read about the case. But I was unable to get it passed.
  I tried it again in 1991, 1992; and until finally in 1995 the Army 
said, ``If you don't introduce any more, we'll go ahead and conduct a 
study of blacks in the military in World War II to see if any of them 
had been deserving of the Congressional Medal of Honor who had not 
received it only because they were black.''
  That report, I am very happy to say, has come out just a few days 
ago. They have nominated seven blacks--one is still living today--to 
receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. The President of the United 
States, Bill Clinton, had said whoever they recommend, he would go 
ahead and allow them to receive that medal--their families to receive 
it. So that is exactly what is going to happen. So, I am very happy to 
say--we hear a lot of negative things that are going on--that something 
wonderful has happened. A great Oklahoman from Tecumseh, OK, will be 
awarded posthumously the highest honor to be given for valor in battle, 
the Congressional Medal of Honor.

  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator wish to withhold?
  Mr. INHOFE. Yes, I withhold my request.
  Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed 
to proceed as in morning business for no more than 10 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Inhofe). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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