World War II Medal of Honor Recipient John R. Fox Was a Member of Kappa Alpha Psi

Did you know that John R. Fox, the World War II hero who gave his life at Sommocolonia, was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.? Fox was initiated through the fraternity’s Delta Chapter at Wilberforce University.

John Robert Fox was born on May 18, 1915, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised in the nearby suburb of Wyoming. He attended Ohio State University before transferring to Wilberforce University, one of the few schools that allowed Black students to participate in ROTC, where he trained under decorated World War I veteran Aaron R. Fisher. After earning an engineering degree, Fox was commissioned as a U.S. Army second lieutenant and joined the 92nd Infantry Division, the storied all-Black unit known as the “Buffalo Soldiers.”

In December 1944, First Lieutenant Fox was serving as a forward artillery observer in the Italian village of Sommocolonia. On Christmas night, German soldiers slipped into the town in civilian clothes, and by the next morning they had overrun it. As American forces withdrew, Fox and a small party volunteered to stay behind on the second floor of a house, directing defensive artillery fire on the advancing enemy.

As the Germans closed in, Fox called the shelling closer and closer to his own position. When his battalion warned that the next rounds would land directly on him, Fox gave his final order: “Fire it! There’s more of them than there are of us. Give them hell!” The barrage killed Fox and roughly 100 German soldiers, and his sacrifice delayed the enemy long enough for American forces to regroup and retake the village. He was 29 years old.

For decades, Fox’s heroism went unrecognized because of the racism of the era. He was not awarded the Distinguished Service Cross until 1982, and it was not until 1997, after a study confirmed that Black soldiers had been unjustly denied the nation’s highest honor, that President Bill Clinton posthumously awarded Fox the Medal of Honor. His widow, Arlene, accepted it on his behalf.

Fox’s legacy has been honored in many forms in the years since. In 2000, the village of Sommocolonia dedicated a peace park in memory of Fox and his unit, and American Legion Post 631 in his hometown of Cincinnati bears his name.

In 2005, Hasbro released a 12-inch John R. Fox action figure as part of its G.I. Joe Medal of Honor series. More recently, in 2021, Fort Sill rededicated a building as Fox Hall, the headquarters of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery, a fitting tribute to the artillery officer. His valor stands as an enduring embodiment of Kappa Alpha Psi’s founding aim of achievement in every field of human endeavor.

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