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|branch= |serviceyears= 1941–1968 |rank= 10px First Lieutenant |unit=370th Infantry Regiment, 30px 92nd Infantry Division 25px 11th Airborne Division |battles= World War II Korean War |awards= 30px Medal of Honor 30px Bronze Star 30px Purple Heart Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare 45px Combat Infantry Badge. (Distinguished Service Cross) 25px(Upgraded)25px |laterwork= }} Vernon Joseph Baker (December 17, 1919 – July 13, 2010) was a United States Army officer who received the Medal of Honor, the highest military award given by the United States Government for his valorous actions during World War II. He was awarded the medal for his actions on April 5–6, 1945 near Viareggio, Italy. Baker was the only living black American World War II veteran of the seven belatedly awarded the Medal of Honor when it was bestowed upon him by President Bill Clinton in 1997. He died in 2010 at the age of 90. ==Early life== Baker was born on December 17, 1919, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the youngest of three children. After his parents died in a car accident when he was four, he and his two sisters were raised by their grandparents. His grandfather Joseph S. Baker, a railroad worker in Cheyenne, taught him to hunt in order to feed the family and became "the most influential figure in Vernon's life." His relationship with his grandmother was much more strained, and he spent a few years at the Boys Town orphanage in Nebraska to be away from her.〔 Baker graduated from high school in his grandfather's hometown of Clarinda, Iowa. He then worked as a railroad porter, a job he despised, until his grandfather's death from cancer in 1939. A series of menial jobs followed until his enlistment in the U.S. Army in mid-1941. He attempt to enlist in April 1941, but was turned away with the recruiter stating, "We don't have any quotas for you people". Baker tried again weeks later with a different recruiter and was accepted; he requested to become a quartermaster but was assigned instead to the infantry.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vernon Baker」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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