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Yves Logghe / AP
Nurse Augusta Chiwy, left, talks with author and military historian Martin King moments before receiving an award for valor from the U.S. Army, in Brussels, Monday. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)
BRUSSELS, Belgium - A nurse who saved the lives of hundreds of American soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge at the end of World War II was given a U.S. award for valor Monday — 67 years late.
Congolese-born Augusta Chiwy, now 93, received the Civilian Award for Humanitarian Service medal from U.S. Ambassador Howard Gutman at a ceremony in the military museum in Brussels.
"She helped, she helped, and she helped," Gutman said at the ceremony. He said the long delay in presenting the award was because it was assumed that Chiwy had been killed when a bomb destroyed her hospital.
The Battle of the Bulge was a ferocious encounter in the final stages of World War II. In desperation, Adolf Hitler ordered a massive attack on allied forces in the Ardennes, in southern Belgium. More than 80,000 American soldiers were killed, captured or wounded.
Chiwy had volunteered to assist in an aid station in the town of Bastogne, where wounded and dying U.S. soldiers in their thousands were being treated by a single doctor in December 1944 and January 1945. Chiwy braved the gunfire, helping whoever she could, and saving the lives of hundreds of American GIs.
The Nazis hoped the surprise attack would reach the sea at the Belgian port of Antwerp and cut off the advancing allied armies. Bastogne, a market town that was also a critical road junction, was quickly besieged.
The U.S. troops — led by paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division — found themselves surrounded. But they resisted fiercely, and the key crossroads was never taken.
During the siege, Bastogne was heavily shelled and quickly reduced to ruins. Another Belgian nurse — Chiwy's friend Renee Lemaire — was killed along with about 30 patients when a bomb penetrated a cellar where she was tending to the wounded.
Gutman said the diminutive Chiwy combed battlefields during the battle, often coming under enemy fire, to collect the wounded in the deep snow.
"What I did was very normal," Chiwy said during the ceremony. "I would have done it for anyone. We are all children of God."
But Col. J.P. McGee, who commands a brigade of the 101st Airborne Division based in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, said that to the wounded soldiers Chiwy was "a goddess."
"Men lived and families were reunited due to your efforts," he said.
McGee said the army's doctor in Bastogne, John Prior, had joked that the German snipers couldn't hit Chiwy because she was so tiny. But Chiwy, who moved to Belgium from the colony of Congo before the war, responded that they were just bad shots.
McGee also gave Chiwy a letter of appreciation from Gen. David Petraeus, himself a former commander of the 101st Airborne.
After the battle, Chiwy slipped into obscurity, working as a hospital nurse treating spinal injuries. She married a Belgian soldier and had two children.
She was finally located several years ago by a British author and historian, Martin King, who had heard stories about a black nurse at Bastogne.
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She has to be a wonderful lady who became a bigger than life figure in the worst of times. It's nice they can find people like this who made a difference to her fellow man and we should all take a lesson from her. This life on earth is not about us but how we serve other people in our lifetime.
You are in my heart. Thank you.
she is without a doubt the most endearing person that I have ever had the good fortune to meet. There's a contentment and quiet dignity about her that's quite overpowering. She reinforces my faith, despite all the evil we have to contend with there is good in the world. Augusta Chiwy is the manifestation and proof of this. working to get her these awards was a labor of love.
Many blessings Martin
Thanks for your work Martin.
God bless her. What courage and what selflessness! A true heroine. God made his angels and sent some of them to earth known as nurses.
Thank You Ma'am.
A whole nation says Thank you Ma'am
I'm so glad that she was recognized and honored while still alive, what a true hero.
Fantastic that she was finally honored in her lifetime.
Interesting that she bravely and selflessly risked her life to offer care to soldiers of a country that, at the time, would probably not have allowed her to work in a white hospital. At least as a nurse.
Well done to both this lady and the US for this.
Thank you Ma'am. She has a great story. What would be nice for me if she might be contacted and asked about a small group of medics from the 52 AIB, led be Dr Reilly (Rilley). This small group operated an Aid Station on the square in Bastogne and over in the Cathederal. They had a warming fire going in the middle of the cathedral. I would imagine some of her guys ended up in the battalion aid stations. My dad (deceased) remembered the day, Christmas Eve, when the skies (sp) cleared and the 101st dropped in. He also mentioned that there was a lot of other air action that day. The 52nd Armored Infantry Battalion, 9th Armored Division, was decimated, during the battle of the bulge. She is a true hero.
There is no award good enough for this brave Angel of Mercy...
Folks, these are the generation that saved our world. We can't honor them enough...
So true. My Brother and I visited Bastogne, and what a place. I had Uncles that fought that battle, and we wanted to check it out. The town is quite nice, and the Memorial to the battle is worth the trip. There is a little museum there, chock full of stuff left over from the retreating Germans, very interesting. The 30 minute film showing the actual footage of the battle is unreal. It's amazing what humans can do.
She should have been honored in 1945, but nurses rarely were, least of all foreign ones. Instead, we inflated brave but limited Patton to a giant and made Gen. McCauliffe's response to the surrender order a mysterious "Nuts". It was really "Balls". War is and perhaps must always be more macho than peacetime, but mercy has always ignored gender lines. Bless this woman. Bless McCauliffe. And bless every soldier who fought and froze and faced death that frightful winter in the Ardennes. "Band of Brothers" touches on the lonely suffering -- and it dramatizes the loss of the kind of nurse we honored 56 years too late. So bless Spielberg, too. And bless us for having this rare opportunity to thank a great person who brought our neighbors and relatives home from hell.
A saint woman nurse. I was lucky to have one in my life once. I'm glad this one gets recognized, finally.
I wish I could give her a hug. She is the epitome of Godliness and Heaven holds a special place for this lady. Thank you dear lady.
An inspiration. Thank you Mrs Chiwy. May you live another 100 years.
No reason to play the race card fencesitter - this is a feel good story about a lovely lady who finally was recognized for her bravery and character not color.
God Bless her.
I wasn't playing the race card Potato - merely pointing out the irony of it.
Well actually it was US Armt policy not to allow African/American nurses to treat white soldiers in W.W.II but Augusta was a volunteer and therefore not subject to this stupid regulation.
Best Martin
Stay in any medical facility long enough and you'll discover right quickly who the "workers" are; heartfelt thanks to my sibling, who is a retired ER nurse, to my friends and their offspring who continue the tradition, and to all the nurses who heal and comfort everywhere, some under the most adverse of conditions imaginable. as did Ms. Chiwy.
This in itself is another crime against the level of humanity and contribution that we and I do mean BLACK PEOPLE have been denied in having our place in history as world contributors and not just for the greater good of America. I am proud to be here but am aware of this nations history. No matter what, it is 67 years too late. Change the cycle of this denying the Black existence completely and then there will be a better America, God Bless America!
jonathon
are you done using the black race card crutch yet? dont distort or take away from the story you should be proud that she got the recoginition, even if it was along time coming..
I am so glad she was finally honored. However, I know she did not do the things she did for glory but just to help people who needed her help. I am glad there are people like her in this world. I wonder how I would have reacted were I in the same or similar situations. I have a feeling I would have been like about 90% of the people and done nothing. This is a real HERO. God Bless Her and her family.
better late than never, damn people 67 years after the fact.. maybe we can start giving recognition alittle sooner so they get the credit they deserve and live to enjoy it, this one is at least 50 years overdue... my belated congratulations..
Great story, I'm a retired navy nurse, so this especially hits home with me.
God Bless this wonderful nurse... the story did not inject the race card...so why does anyone have to screw up a good feeling of the great lady got her due recognition... the obomas of this world are pathetic... and soon to be gone... we owe you nothing because your black.....you owe enough from your freeloading, pathetic ways... oboma math will get you nowhere... WORK....is the answer... use your god given brain...A Vietnam Vet that survived..
And why do you have to inject your hatred of our President into this story?
ummm, because hes not a good one< wasnt born in the us< theres proof hes muslim in the church< and thats unconstitutional.. any other questions?
After this story shown, there were nothing but nice posts, then of course you came along and had to ruin it with political bull.
How wonderful that Mrs Chiwy has gotten the recognition she so richly deserves - my father was at Bastogne, but not wounded there, and he said it was like hell on earth. From what the story says they all thought she died in the terrible shelling the town received. I'm so glad her story has finally been told - what a remarkably courageous woman she is!!
@ horsepucky: Why is it that the detractors and muddiers-of-the-waters to suit their own fixations and limitations are determined to go off subject on such a pleasant occasion as this honouring of a brave lady?
These idiots turn up on all sorts of comments' lists and are gloriously notable in their infantile lack of punctuation and capitalisation, and ignorance of spelling and grammar.
Perhaps though, the foregoing is indicative of their general maturity, and may be a guide to the level of credence we place in their skewed opinions?
I am not profSoldier but profradar@netzero, but not a bad name since I served in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. I guess I am eternally grateful for the foriegn heros. May God blees this Belgian nurse. Thanks even delayed is most apreciated. However from my E-mail address you will realize I served in a Hospital unit and we had a chief nurse (not hotlips1) who was one of the Angels of Bataan. She had been awarded an appropriat decoration as did (I hop) did her fellow (2) nurses. They were captured on Coregidor. Some one can respond with her name and if she is still living. In any case I will always remember her and other nurses I worked with forever. Thanks to anyone , orean, American, Turk, Britcom or Vietnamese who helped in any to bring me home.
May God bless her. There were generations because of her.
she wasn't honored sooner as it was thought she had been blown-up along with the hospital were she worked.
in the 1940's people didn't go looking for blown-up people.
and considering her actions/work she isn't the type to person to toot her own horn. but she knows what she has done. as does God.
I labored for 5 years to get the awards that I believed Augusta deserved. Her story first appeared in my book 'Voices of the Bulge'. I'm British but I live in Belgium and my co-author lives in upstate NY. I appreciate all the lovely comments here and thank you for them. I mentioned the remarkable story of Augusta when I was interviewed with Mike on Fox 5 News in DC.
Now I think it's time that Mr. Obama stepped forward and honored this truly amazing person. I believe they may have something in common. Many blessings to you all and a Merry Christmas.
#!/pages/Martin-King-Military-Historian/177666262245534