Private George Watson received the Medal of Honor posthumously in 1997 along with six other Black Americans for his courageous rescue of fellow soldiers during World War II.
According to the National World War II Museum “On March 8, 1943, while aboard the Army-chartered, Dutch steamer Jacob with his unit near New Guinea, Japanese bombers attacked the ship. While the vessel sank, Watson selflessly swam back and forth from nearby life rafts to the wreckage of the Jacob, rescuing fellow soldiers before drowning from exhaustion.”