e I dented it
another six feet when I plunged into it. In my fist I held the
captain's can of coffee.

"When I climbed out of the hole and started running again a bullet
clipped a hole in the can and the coffee started to run out. But I
turned around stopped a second, looked the Kaiser in the face and
held up the can of coffee with my finger plugging up the hole to
show the Germans they were fooled. Just then another bullet hit the
can and another finger had to act as a stopper. I pulled out an old
rabbit's foot that my girl had given me and rubbed it so hard the
hair almost came off.

"It must have been the good luck thing that saved my life because
the bullets were picking at my clothes and so many hit the can that
at the end all my fingers were in use to keep the coffee in. I
jumped into shell holes and wriggled along the ground and got back
safely. And what do you think? When I got back into our own
trenches I stumbled and spilled the coffee."

Not only did Lieutenant George Miller, battalion adjutant, confirm the
story, but he added:

"When that boy came back with the coffee his clothes were riddled
with bullets. Yet half an hour later he went out into no man's land
and brought back a number of wounded until he was badly gassed.
Even then he refused to go to the rear and went out again for a
wounded soldier. All this under fire. That's the reason he got the
D.S.C."

Corporal Elmer Earl, also of Company K, living in Middletown, N.Y., won
the D.S.C. He explained:

"We had taken a hill Sept. 26 in the Argonne. We came to the edge
of a swamp when the enemy machine guns opened fire. It was so bad
that of the 58 of us who went into a particular strip, only 8 came
out without being killed or wounded. I made a number of trips out
there and brought back about a dozen wounded men."

The proudest recollection which Negro officers and privates will carry
through life is that of the whole-hearted recognition given them in the
matter of decorations by the French army authorities. Four colored
regiments of the 93rd division attained the highest record in these
awards. These regiments being brigaded with the French, their conduct in
action was thus under their observation. Not only was each of these
regiments cited as a unit for the Croix de Guerre, but 365 individual
soldiers received the