A veteran's plight reaches congress

January 23, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. – For more than 60 years, retired janitor and World War II veteran Samuel Snow maintained his innocence, while the U.S. Army treated him as a criminal.

They imprisoned him, took away his pay, had him dishonorably discharged, and left the Leesburg, Florida resident with no hope of receiving any future health or retirement benefits from his service during World War II.

That is, until last October when the Army admitted it had made a mistake when it wrongfully convicted Snow and 27 other black soldiers of participating in a 1944 riot at Seattle’s Fort Lawton that resulted in the lynching of an Italian prisoner of war.

But it wasn’t the Army’s admission that raised eyebrows.  Instead, it was the paltry $725 the military paid Snow for lost pay for the time he’d spent in prison.

Now two lawmakers, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott of Seattle and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, have filed legislation to force the military to award interest on any back pay owed to Snow, and to others in similar circumstances who have convictions overturned by the courts or Army’s Board for Correction of Military Records.

Nelson and McDermott, who for the last two months have pressed the military to increase the $725 award, say the Pentagon’s unwillingness to adjust Snow’s back pay to include interest left them with no other choice than to give Congress the final say.  Paying Snow in today’s dollars would amount to about $8,000, and about $80,000 with interest.

“We keep asking people to do the right thing, but it seems everybody’s looking for a way to prevent them from paying a fair settlement,” said Nelson. 

“This was always about justice, not money, but the fact is Sam Snow, Booker Townsell and the other innocent African American soldiers were deprived of a lifetime of GI economic benefits dating back to World War II, and the least we can do is provide back pay with interest, which will amount to a lot more than the paltry $725 check Mr. Snow received for compensation,” McDermott said.  “That’s what our legislation will do and in my judgment it is legislation that is right, just and fair.”

In mid-December, Nelson asked Army Secretary Pete Geren to revise the military’s decision and adjust Snow’s 1944-1945 pay upward for inflation.  But a couple of days later, the Army chief’s staff said their hands were tied, spurring the Florida lawmaker last week to appeal directly to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to help Snow.  Gates has yet to respond to Nelson’s request.  The filing of the legislation coincides with Congress returning from its winter recess.

On Saturday, another of the wrongfully convicted soldiers, Booker Townsell, received military honors posthumously at a graveside ceremony in Milwaukee.  McDermott and a representative from the U.S. Army joined the family at the ceremony. 

Besides Snow, only one of the 28 soldiers involved reportedly still is alive.

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