Seven #NativeAmericans received the MOH in WWII, three of them from #TheLiberator's 45th "Thunderbird" Div., which left the US to defeat fascism with more than 1500 #NativeAmericans, more than any other US Division. #MOH #WWII #MtRushmore

Here's Van Barfoot, same 157th Inf. regiment as #TheLiberator - Felix Sparks. He received the medal for action on 23 May 1944, breaking out of Anzio. I once sat on a stage right beside him and boy did he scare the hell out of me!

Barfoot made big headlines before he died in 2012 for refusing to take down a huge flagpole that apparently broke zoning laws outside his home - he raised the flag every morning.

#NativeAmerican MOH recipient Barfoot grew up in Mississippi. In 1945, when he had defeated Nazism, Dem. Senator for his state and KKK member Theodore G. Bilbo asked Barfoot if he had issues with African-American soldiers he had served with during the war.

To Bilbo's embarrassment, Barfoot said: "I found out after I did some fighting in this war that the colored boys fight just as good as the white boys...I've changed my idea a lot about colored people since I got into this war and so have a lot of other boys from the south."