BVI Family Honors 103‑Year‑Old Buffalo Soldier
Roy J. Caldwood, 103, a Harlem-born World War II medic with parents from Jost Van Dyke and Tortola, may be the last living Buffalo Soldier from WWII. His family is working to highlight his wartime service and BVI roots with a museum on Jost Van Dyke and a commemorative sign already marks his contribution.
Caldwood, age 103, is drawing renewed attention for his wartime service and his deep ties to the British Virgin Islands. Born in Harlem on July 10, 1922, to parents from Jost Van Dyke and Tortola, Caldwood now spends time between Tampa and the family home on Jost Van Dyke, where a historic sign on a hill commemorates his humanitarianism and heroism during World War II.
Army and — instead of remaining in a segregated logistics battalion — volunteered for the 92nd Infantry Division, the Buffalo Soldiers. Trained as a medic at Fort Huachuca, he was assigned to the 92nd Infantry Reconnaissance Troop, 2nd Platoon, and deployed to Italy in 1944–45. His wartime service is recorded in a two-and-a-half-hour interview for the West Point Center for Oral History, where he recounts combat, incidents of racism at home, and surprisingly warm reception from many Italians he met while fighting the Germans in the Italian mountains.
One dramatic episode Caldwood describes involved escorting local women in a snowstorm along a dangerous stretch of road nicknamed "Purple Heart Stretch." Under German mortar fire, he believed the attackers suddenly recognized the party’s humanitarian mission and stopped. Within hours, Caldwood says, a column of 30 to 40 German soldiers surrendered to his platoon — an event he believes was among the final German surrenders in the Italian Campaign.
Caldwood also earned a Bronze Star after staying behind to care for a seriously ill villager; during a later attack he was thrown nearly 30 feet, sustained shrapnel wounds and suffered hearing damage. After the war he returned to New York, married Muriel Edmead in 1946, raised two daughters in Queens and spent more than 21 years with the New York City Department of Corrections, rising to Assistant Deputy Warden on Rikers Island.
He wrote about his career in the book Making the Right Moves: Rikers Island & NYC Corrections: Being Calm in the Storm. Caldwood and his family are founding members of the Jost Van Dyke Advancement Team. They are now working to establish a museum on Jost Van Dyke to preserve his story and highlight contributions of people with BVI roots.
The planned museum aims to connect younger generations to this local link to global history and to promote pride in the Territory’s heritage. For information, the family can be reached via buffalosoldierroy.com. Locally, Caldwood’s story is a reminder that the BVI’s diaspora carries living links to major moments in history.
The family’s museum effort and existing memorial sign on Jost Van Dyke offer residents and visitors alike a chance to honour a BVI son whose service bridged continents and communities.
Primary source: St Thomas Source