(Radio Iowa) – The health clinic at the Rock Island Arsenal has been named in honor of a black medic who’s credited with saving dozens of soldiers on D-Day. Army Staff Sergeant Waverly Woodson, Junior, was a member of the only African American unit to storm Omaha Beach on June 6th, 1944. Woodson was seriously wounded, but the recently retired commander of the Rock Island Arsenal says what Woodson did next was heroic.

Woodson is also credited with saving four soldiers who were drowning, pulling them to shore and administering C-P-R.

That’s Lieutenant Colonel Thomas James, Junior, the former commander of the Rock Island Arsenal who spoke at a dedication ceremony yesterday (Thursday). James says Woodson had a long career in health care and retired in 1980 after working at the National Institutes of Health for 38 years.

Woodson’s official US Army portrait, taken while he held the rank of sergeant.

The Health Clinic in the Quad Cities that now bears Waverly Woodson’s name serves hundreds of active duty soldiers and their families in the region, as well as the hundreds of civilians who work at the Arsenal. The author of a recently-published book about Woodson’s World War II unit found a note from a general saying Woodson had earned the Medal of Honor.

Woodson died in 2005. His family has asked the Army to award Woodson the Medal of Honor posthumously.