Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May, but its roots go back much further than many people realize. What began as an informal act of remembrance in the years following the Civil War grew slowly into a national tradition, shaped by loss, by war, and by the enduring belief that those who die in service to their country deserve to be honored. 

Memorial Day has changed over time, expanded in scope, and been observed in countless different ways, but its heart has always been the same: a people stopping to acknowledge a debt they can never fully repay.

John Robert Fox was born on May 18, 1915, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended Wilberforce University, one of the oldest historically Black universities in the country, where he studied engineering and joined the ROTC program. He graduated in 1941 with a commission as a second lieutenant and went on to serve with the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division, one of the segregated units the U.S. Army deployed to the Italian front during World War II. He was a young man from the Midwest who had earned his rank, trained for his role, and answered his country's call, even at a time when that country did not yet treat him as an equal. 

On the day after Christmas, 1944, German forces overran the Italian village of Sommocolonia. As American soldiers retreated, Lieutenant Fox volunteered to stay behind with a small group of forward observers. His job was to direct artillery fire to slow the enemy advance and buy his fellow soldiers time to escape.

From the second floor of a building, Fox called in artillery strikes that moved closer and closer to his own position as the Germans tightened their grip on the town. At one point, his commanding officer warned him that the next adjustment would bring the shelling directly onto Fox himself.

When American forces retook Sommocolonia, they found Lieutenant Fox where he had chosen to stay. He was 29 years old.

What followed his death is its own painful chapter. For decades, Fox received no recognition commensurate with his selfless sacrifice. In the early 1990s, a formal review confirmed what many had long suspected: that Black soldiers had been deliberately passed over for the Medal of Honor because of their race. Fox was among seven men whose service was finally acknowledged in January 1997, more than fifty years after the fact.

While the medal arrived late, the gratitude should not. A soldier who chose to stay behind, who directed fire onto his own position so that others could live and who spent his final moments thinking about the soldiers retreating to safety rather than himself.

That is what patriotic heroism looks like. Lieutenant Fox's name deserves to be spoken in the same breath as the greatest heroes this great nation has ever produced.

There is no single right way to observe Memorial Day, but there are many ways that you can be direct. Here are a few ways to participate, whether from your home or your community.

This Memorial Day, we ask that you take a moment to think not just about the holiday, but about the people behind it. Every freedom we enjoy, every ordinary day we take for granted, exists because someone chose to give theirs up.

To every veteran who has served this country, thank you. To the families who waited at home and sacrificed alongside their loved ones, often in ways unrecognized, thank you. To the Gold Star families who carry a loss that never fully heals, thank you. Your strength and your grief are not lost on us.

We at Hill & Ponton are honored to serve those who served, and on this day especially, we are humbled by those who gave everything to protect the freedoms we hold dear.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for honoring the memory of the fallen with us. We hope you and your family have a meaningful Memorial Day weekend.

In Remembrance,

Hill & Ponton — Nationwide Veterans Disability Lawyers