Sing Lau Kee: The Shield Of America And The Allies Power

The battlefield, where the soldiers put their lives on the line between life and death in the trenches during the Battle of Chateau-Thierry in 1918. Sing Lau Kee, who was working in the message center at the time, has to run miles between the lines to deliver messages as the frontline units need to be replaced. Having to run across the battlefield, this is an extremely dangerous and risky job, and Sing Lau Kee also could not escape the Germans’ rapid firepower.

But after the battle, his achievements and heroism had given him the title of the “First Chinese American to receive a combat medal in US History”. Bio

Sing Lau Kee was born in Saratoga, California. He lived with his family, his father, who operated a store and labour contract business in the city, and later on, moved to San Jose. Sing Lau Kee attended American schools in Oakland city. In 1917, he enlisted in the Army in New York City, at the age of 21.

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Joining the Army, he was assigned to the 77th Infantry Division where he worked as a staff of the message center. Since there are many soldiers from New York City, this division has their official unit named “Statue of Liberty Division”. Action + RecognitionAlthough many of us can see him as just an ordinary soldier who worked in a regular division, his actions had proved the opposite. After his troop arrived in France in April 1918, he was assigned to work at the message center. With rapid heavy artillery shelling every minute, machine gun fire and sudden poison gas attacks made his job a very hard-working and active job but high in risk and casualties.

In the divisions, runners like him are considered as the military radios at that moment.

Running through the battlefield with gunfire and artillery fired by the Germans in the same time trying to keep up the communication for his regiment, the life of Sing Lau Kee is on the line. But despite the dangers and threats from the enemy, he kept on fighting. Due to the heavy gas attack and shells rain on 306th Regiment, August 14th 1918, everyone is noticed to evacuate. He himself had to witness a heartbreak and painful situation where all of his comrades either suffer from wounds or being killed by the enemy. However, he refused evacuation and managed to stay on the job by himself for the whole 24 hours, even when he is badly wounded and gassed. As a results, his bravery was soon being acknowledged and pay off. He achieved the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) medal, 2nd highest to the Medal of Honour, for his heroism; Purple Heart for his wound and Croix de Geurre from France. As one of his comrade has said, “[Sing Lau Kee] is the best American in our regiment”. Besides being awarded with one of the highest combat medal in the States, he was also the first Chinese American to have a US combat medal and one of the most decorated soldier. All of his heroic acts and achievements have shown that he was an exemplary American soldier, and deserve recognition for his courage. ConclusionIt is for all the things that he had done and his bravery that I believe he is one of the hero out there in the battlefield, the shield of the 306th Infantry Division and of the Allies Power. His act of bravery and deeds should go down in history books and be remembered forever. He is also a living proof for the minority populations of Asians in America, proving that not only Americans can be a hero for the country.