Woodrow W. Keeble

Woodrow Wilson Keeble (May 16, 1917 – January 28, 1982) (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate) was a U.S. Army National Guard combat veteran of both World War II and the Korean War.

Keeble was born on May 16, 1917, in Waubay, South Dakota, to Isaac and Nancy (née Shaker) Keeble, members of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate.

While still very young, he moved with them to Wahpeton, North Dakota, where his mother worked at the Wahpeton Indian School.

Keeble's unit was assigned to the United States Army's Americal Division (23rd Infantry Division).

Keeble was called to active duty with his National Guard unit on February 10, 1941.

The 164th Infantry landed on Guadalcanal on October 13, 1942, to help the battered First Marine Division, which had suffered heavy losses while clearing the South Pacific island of Japanese.

Despite its ad hoc formation, the Americal Division fought well at Guadalcanal, the 164th Infantry taking on a key role in the defeat of a major Japanese offensive in October 1942.

The Dakotans performed so heroically on Guadalcanal in support of the Marines that they received a Navy Presidential Unit Citation.

After the battles on Guadalcanal, Keeble and the rest of the regiment participated in combat campaigns on the islands of Bougainville, Leyte, Cebu, and Mindanao.

Following the Japanese surrender, the entire Americal Division landed in Japan and took part in the occupation of the Yokohama region.

Keeble was discharged from the Army on April 11, 1946, after more than five years of active duty.

He had spent most of that period overseas.

After the war, Keeble returned to Wahpeton and worked at the Wahpeton Indian School.

On November 14, 1947, he married Nettie Abigail Owen-Robertson (born March 30, 1917).

Discussing the experience of being in combat for the first time, Keeble said,

"Before I experienced the horror of that attack, I was quick to call coward or yellow anyone who showed fear under any circumstances. Nevermore. I don't know these things, but they speak truth to one. I am not a psychologist, nor a statistician, and less of a philosopher; but the depth of emotion, the dreads of fear, the referees of horrors, and the concentration of self that led me to make this observation, the fear impulse, or perhaps, better said, the (impulses caused) by fear, are stronger, more demanding than either that of love or hunger..."

Keeble had previously been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for these actions in 1952.

He was wounded at least twice in World War II and three times in Korea, but he had received only two Purple Hearts for these injuries; later he was credited with four Purple Hearts.

(Since being transferred to the tribe in the 1970s, it is now called Circle of Nations School).

She died when Keeble was still a child.

Keeble's father, who was too impoverished to feed his family, permanently enrolled Woodrow and his siblings in the school.

Keeble excelled in sports, especially baseball.

He pitched the Wahpeton amateur team to 10 straight victories.

He was being recruited by the Chicago White Sox when his Army National Guard unit was called up to serve in World War II.

In 2008, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroic actions during the Korean War.

He was a member of the people of the Lake Traverse Reservation, a federally recognized tribe of Dakota people.

On March 3, 2008, following a long campaign by his family and the congressional delegations of both North and South Dakota, President George W. Bush posthumously awarded Keeble the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on October 20, 1951, in the Korean War.

In World War II, Keeble served with I Company of the famed North Dakota 164th Infantry Regiment.

After initial training in Louisiana, the regiment carried out various orders in several West Coast locations before being deployed to Australia in preparation for operations in the Pacific Theater.

The 164th regiment provided the first replacements for the 1st Marines, and although the new boys were green, the exhausted men heartily welcomed the North Dakotans—and their supplies.

Keeble's regiment of Dakotans was the first United States Army unit to conduct an offensive operation against the enemy in any theater.

Largely because of transport constraints, the Americal Division arrived on Guadalcanal piecemeal, and was fed into combat alongside the battle-hardened Marines.

In contrast to the way several U.S. Army divisions were deployed in the Pacific War, the soldiers of the 164th Infantry were able to learn the practical art of jungle warfare against the Japanese without suffering as many casualties as might otherwise have occurred.

The battles on Guadalcanal were some of the most brutal of the war.

Japanese troops adopted the Banzai charge, wildly attacking in human waves.

Sometimes the hand-to-hand battles would last all through the night.

During these battles, Keeble's reputation for bravery and skill grew.

Nearly a head taller than most of his fellow soldiers, he was an expert with the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR).

His other great weapon was his pitching arm, which he used to hurl hand grenades with deadly accuracy.

James Fenelon (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota), who fought with Keeble on Guadalcanal, once remarked, "The safest place to be was right next to Woody."