Nicole Malliotakis: “Today I rise to tell the story of Ozzie Fletcher. Seventy-seven years ago, on D-day, June 6, 1944, 22-year-old Osceola…”

“Today I rise to tell the story of Ozzie Fletcher. Seventy-seven years ago, on D-day, June 6, 1944, 22-year-old Osceola ``Ozzie'' Fletcher was working as an Army crane operator on Omaha Beach when he was hit by a German missile, leaving him with serious wounds on his leg and head. Despite the injuries he sustained that day, Ozzie was overlooked, in fact, denied a Purple Heart simply because of the color of his skin. At the time, our forces were segregated, where Black soldiers could not serve alongside White soldiers. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff learned of Ozzie's story, sending the Army on a 2-month-long fact-finding mission. This weekend I was honored to attend the ceremony at Fort Hamilton Army Base in my district in Brooklyn, New York, when an historic wrong was corrected and Ozzie was finally awarded the Purple Heart he earned more than seven decades ago, as the Nation observed Juneteenth. This recognition of Ozzie's service was long overdue. I have great and profound appreciation for his service during World War II and his acts of bravery on that fateful day that changed the course of our world's history. After the war, Ozzie served as a sergeant with the NYPD, a community relations officer in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, and later retired to become a social studies teacher in New York City public schools.…”