SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A California man who was denied a medal of honor for his heroism during World War II for more than six decades because he was black has died. He was 100.
Carl Clark's daughter, Karen Clark Collins, said Tuesday her father died March 16 at a Veteran's Administration hospital in Menlo Park.
Clark was serving as a Steward First Class aboard the USS Aaron Ward when Japanese kamikazes attacked the destroyer near Okinawa, Japan, in May 1945.
Six kamikazes hit the destroyer, with the blast from one plane so powerful that it blew him all the way across the ship.
Though he suffered a broken collarbone, Clark was credited with saving the lives of several men and putting out a fire in an ammunition locker that would have cracked the destroyer in half.