My Uncles in World War II And Vietnam

This is a historical and brief documentary of the contribution of African American in war.

UNCLE EDWARD AND UNCLE SHERRY
AS A WORLD WAR 2 SOLDIER AND SAILOR

During my years of extensive slave research, I learned that some families can lose their family connection by the spelling of the surnames or not having the original name at all. In this short write-up, I'll explain how my cousins, Louis Sherry GAILES and his wife Helen Louise WASHINGTON-GAILES, both deceased, were actually from the same ancestor. Louis was born about 1927 in Opelousas, Louisiana to Odell Edward GAILES and Ethel GUIDRY. Helen was born about 1937 in Washington, Louisiana to Aaron WASHINGTON, Sr. and Letha NESBIT. Louis is the great-grandson of Washington GALES, a former quadroon slave of Joseph GRADENIGO, a free man of color, who purchased himself out of bondage. While Washington was enslaved, he had two known children, one named Emile, Helen's grandpa, who he had with a Negro slave named Arthemise, and another named James William GALES who he had with a slave named Louisa. Emile took on his father's forename as a surname. Also, he used his father's former owner's surname as shown in his second marriage: GRADENI, Emile Washington (Washington & Artemise THOMAS) m. 5 Feb. 1883 Irene THOMAS, wid. of Gustin LEDE (Wash. Ch.: v. 1, p. 83)WASHINGTON, Emile m. 29 Jan. 1883 Irene THOMAS, wid. of Justin LEDE (Opel. Ct. Hse.: Mar. #12683).





My uncle: Edward Odell Gailes Jr.
Technician fifth grade
The T/5 insignia of a letter "T" below two chevrons. Name Edward O Gailes
Gender Male
Birth Date 8 Jan 1922
Death Date 28 Apr 1986
SSN 439164367
Enlistment Branch ARMY
Enlistment Date 21 May 1941
Discharge Date 3 Mar 1947
Page number 1
Country United States


Service branch United States Army
Abbreviation T/5 or Tec 5
Rank group Enlisted
Pay grade 5th Grade
Formation 26 January 1942
Abolished 1 August 1948
Next higher rank Technician fourth grade
Next lower rank Private first class
Equivalent ranks Corporal


At the time, uncle Edward was assigned to the Pacific Theatre; it make sense that he was assigned to the 93rd Infantry Division for duty in that area of operations in late 1944 after years of grueling training and maneuvers in the “South”.

At this time, Douglas MacArthur was coming under fire from his boss, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As commander in chief, Roosevelt was pressured into answering more inquiries from the African American (and white) press: Why weren’t more black combat units in the war? By January 1944 it was settled: The 93rd Division would be going off to war.









My Uncle 'Sherry" Louis Gailes



Service On board vessel during World War 2


Louis Sherry Gailes
in the U.S., World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949
Name Louis Sherry Gailes
Record Type Enlistment
Enlistment Date 1 Jun 1946
Description Receiving Station, New Orleans, La. 30 Apr 1931 to 1 Nov 1946 Part14, 2 Apr 1946 /1 Jul 1946
Detail Source
Name Louis Sherry Gailes
Record Type Military

This is not the same Comfort Class Medical Ship Uncle Sherry was on, but it is the same ship number!
Military Date 1 Apr 1946
Ship, Station or Activity Comfort
Ship Number or Designation T-Ah 20
Series MLR Number A1 135 Service Number: 276 03 13
Receiving Station: San Francisco, Ca. 1/1/1939 to 1/1/1949 Part 48, 2 Mar-1 May 1946

I would like to give an anaysis on the emphasis of African Americans in earlier conficts in American history. One big issue was racial
profiling on African American troops during the period between the Spanish American War and the World Wars.

In Jim Crow Texas, black Regular Army units returning victoriously from Cuba and the Philippines collided head-on with local segregation and bigotry. As the soldiers' expectations of dignity and respect met with racial restrictions and indignities from civilian communities, a series of violent episodes erupted.

Although confrontations also occurred elsewhere, the most notorious were in Texas, beginning with an 1899 clash between white lawmen in Texarkana and black soldiers riding a troop train west after returning from Cuba. The first truly violent episode came in 1906, when troops were accused of attacking Brownsville after civilian provocations. In 1917 a full-scale battle in Houston resulted in fifteen dead and twenty-one injured. Between 1899 and 1917, a series of other face-offs—some involving the complex relationships of blacks with local Hispanic populations—occurred when black soldiers stood up for their rights or their lives in San Antonio, Laredo, El Paso, Rio Grande City, Del Rio, and Waco.

This little-known story, never before told in full, illuminates the collision of racial discrimination with racial pride and reveals once again the petty biases, institutionalized racism, and mutual suspicions that have divided American society. But it is also a story of lofty aspirations too long delayed, of the transformation of a downtrodden race into a self-confident people, and of the noble attempt, however dangerous its means, to realize full citizenship.

Clearly written and impressively researched, Black Soldiers in Jim Crow Texas traces the relationship of the four? black military regiments—the 24th and 25th Infantries and the 9th and 10th Cavalries—with white civilian communities in the period between the Spanish-American War and World War I. Drawn from previously unexploited sources, it fills a void in the increasing body of research on the black military and illuminates the magnitude of racial intolerance in early twentieth-century America. No other work has explored these issues in such depth and with such skill.

Chapter 2
Where it all begun.

African-American Soldiers had served in the Revolutionary War all though they were initially barred. The need for troops led to
them being used in integrated units. Many enslaved and free blacks were recruited to fight against the British. Many Black
Soldiers were scattered throughout the Continental Army in integrated infantry regiments.
Although the Southern states were reluctant to allow the recruitment of enslaved African-Americans for the army, they had no
issue using free and enslaved Blacks in the navy.

Black Soldiers also fought with the British; enslaved blacks choose whatever side that would help them gain their freedom.
African Americans also served as gunners, sailors on privateers and in the Continental Navy during the Revolution. Blacks did a lot of different roles in the military. From simple jobs to James Lafayette, gained renown serving as spies or orderlies for well-known military leaders. By 1775 more than a half-million African Americans, most of them enslaved, were living in the 13 colonies. Early in the 18th century New England ministers and conscientious Quakers, such as George Keith and John Woolman, questioned slavery. They were ignored. By the 1760s as more colonists began to speak out against British tyranny, more Americans pointed out the contradiction between advocating liberty and owning slaves. In 1774 Abigail Adams wrote, “it always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.”

Talk of liberty gave thousands of slaves high expectations, and many were ready to fight for a democratic revolution that might offer them freedom. In 1775 at least 10 to 15 Black soldiers, including some slaves, fought against the British at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. Two of these men, Salem Poor and Peter Salem, earned special distinction for their bravery. By 1776, however, it had become clear that the revolutionary rhetoric of the founding fathers did not include enslaved Blacks. The Declaration of Independence promised liberty for all men but did not end slavery; and even though they were great fighters, the Continental Congress did not allow black soldiers to join the army.

With no guarantee of freedom, many free and enslaved African Americans in New England were willing to fight against the British. As soon states found it increasingly difficult to fill their enlistment quotas, they began to turn to this untapped pool of manpower. Eventually every state above the Potomac River recruited slaves for military service, usually in exchange for their freedom. By the end of the war from 5,000 to 8,000 Blacks had served the American cause by fighting, in support roles, or in the navy. By 1777 some states created laws that encouraged white owners to give slaves for the army in return for their enlistment bounty, or allowing masters to use slaves as substitutes when they or their sons were drafted. In the South the idea of arming slaves for military service met with such opposition that only free blacks were normally allowed to enlist in the army.

Chapter 2: Part 1

The Pioneers of African Americans Contributors

African Americans who fought on Bunker Hill.

Crispus Attacks was a whaler, sailor, and stevedore of African and Native descent who was regarded as the first person killed in
the American Revolution. Historians disagree on whether Attucks was a free man or an escaped slave, but most agree that he was of Wampanoag and African descent. Two major sources of eyewitness testimony about the Boston Massacre published in 1770 did not refer to him as black or as a Negro; it appears he was instead viewed by Bostonians as being of mixed ethnicity. According to a contemporaneous account in the Pennsylvania Gazette, he was a mulatto man, named Crispus Attucks, who was born in Framingham, but lately belonged to New Providence, and was here in order to go for North Carolina.

Peter Salem was an African-American from Massachusetts who served as a U.S. soldier in the American Revolutionary War. Born into slavery in Framingham, he was freed by a later master, Major Lawson Buckminster, to serve in the local militia.

Salem fought with his company in the Battle of Bunker Hill. According to Samuel Swett, who chronicled the battle, Salem had mortally wounded Royal Marines officer John Pitcairn who died from a musket shot.This has been disputed. About a dozen other free African Americans took part in the battle, including Phillip Abbot of Andover Mass Barzillai Lew, Salem Poor, Titus Coburn, Alexander Ames, Cato Howe, and Seymour Burr.

Salem Poor (c. 1747–1802) was an enslaved African-American man who purchased his freedom in 1769, became a soldier in 1775. He was involved in the American Revolutionary War, particularly in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Poor enlisted in the militia when he was
28 years old. He served under Captain Benjamin Ames in Colonel James Frye's regiment. Salem Poor was one of three dozen
African-Americans who fought on Bunker Hill.
The Continental Army, established by way of, having a Main Army, January 1776; and by having a "eighty-eight battalion" resolve.

The goal was to have 36 regiments, most standardized by a single battalion of 768 men strong, and formed into eight companies,
with a rank and file strength of 640.
[excerpt from US Navy Continental Navy history: Third Congress: December 1, 1793.]

An act to provide a Naval Armament by the President of the United states, George Washington. "Be it therefore enacted by the
Senate that the President of the United states be authorized to provide or otherwise, equip and employ four ships to carry
forty-four guns each, and two ships to carry thirty-six guns each".

The War of 1812: African Americans who fought during the war.

As was the case of the Revolutionary War, the status of Black Americans and Sailors during the War of 1812 was unclear, and
their service not well documented. Nevertheless, they served. When the opportunity was presented, some enslaved people fled
to the British hoping to secure their freedom. Others, both enslaved and free, including some 1,000 Black Sailors were captured
by British forces and held as prisoner combatants. Black Sailors served extensively in the inexperienced US navy, which had only
18 sailable ships in 1812. At the battle of Lake Erie, about 25 percent of sailors were Black.
One of these men was Silas (or Cyrus) Tiffany, a veteran of the American Revolution. He was an elderly man by 1812 but served with American naval commander Oliver Hazard Perry. During the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813, Tiffany shielded Perry from fire when they evacuated the damaged flagship to move to the USS Niagara. Once aboard the Niagara, Perry assigned Tiffany to guard the doors to belowdecks and help rally the troops. Perry defeated the larger British naval force, the first time in history that an entire British naval squadron surrendered.


The Army and most states did not accept Black soldiers, though some northern states recruited them. In Michigan Territory, three Black men, at least one of whom was enslaved⁠—Peter Denison, Ezra Burgess, and Ensign Bossett—were commissioned as officers and given authority to recruit both free Blacks and those escaping enslavement into militia units.

African American soldiers' service in the War of 1812 occurred from 1812 to 1815, with notable service in the U.S. Navy and the Louisiana militia, alongside British efforts to recruit formerly enslaved people. Key events included the Battle of Baltimore (1814), where Frederick Hall died defending Fort McHenry, and the Battle of New Orleans (1815), where Black men fought for the U.S. Army under Andrew Jackson.
Notable persons, who even I was unaware of were the following:
Major Joseph Savary was the first black 2nd Major in U.S. Army history. He was appointed by General Jackson to the defense of New Orleans on December 23, 1814 (Lawrence E. Walker Foundation Collection). Frederick Hall, who used the alias William Williams was a runaway African American slave who enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 and died from a mortal wound while defending Fort McHenry from the British naval bombardment in 1814 (U.S. National Park Services).

Chapter 2: Part 2 A.


The Spanish American War: African Americans who fought during the war.

African Americans fought bravely in the Spanish-American War as part of the four regular "Buffalo Soldier" regiments (Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry) and newly formed volunteer units, seeing action in Cuba at battles like San Juan Hill. Their participation was significant, with nearly 3,000 regulars and thousands of volunteers in the conflict, and five soldiers earned the Medal of Honor. Despite their heroic efforts and contributions to the war, they returned to a segregated America where their role was often overlooked, though they hoped their service would improve their equality.

Chapter 2: Part 2 B.

The Maine:

The sinking of the battleship USS Maine in Havana Harbor, Cuba, on February 15, 1898, sparked the Spanish-American War. The explosion killed 268 men and sent shockwaves throughout the US as many Americans believed the Spanish orchestrated the incident. As Cuba fought for independence from Spain, this event proved to be a turning point in the escalating conflict between the United States and Spain. On April 25, 1898, Congress declared war against Spain.

Of the over 17,000 men sent to Cuba to serve in the war, African Americans made up nearly 3,000 of the Regular Army soldiers. In order to prepare and train for the invasion of Cuba, all four regiments of Buffalo Soldiers (Ninth and Tenth Cavalry and Twenty-fourth and Twenty Fifth Infantry) trained in the South for the first time since their formation. Stationed in Tampa and Lakeland, Florida, these soldiers faced the harsh realities of segregation and the Jim Crow laws of the region.
One such incident was occurred on June 6, 1898, mere days before the troops ventured overseas, a riot ensued in Tampa between white and black soldiers over the treatment of a two-year old black child. White soldiers from an Ohio regiment decided to hold a contest: whoever shot the little boy and put a bullet through his baggy shirt without harming him would win. Thankfully, the boy was not harmed, but when news of the event reached the black soldiers, violence broke out. At least twenty-seven black soldiers and three white volunteers received serious injuries and could not be deployed.

Chapter 2: Part 2 C.

Prior to their arrival in Cuba, the first major battle of the war had already occurred in the Pacific. On May 1, 1898, George Dewey and the US Asiatic Squadron defeated the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines. A month later, US troops including Buffalo Soldiers landed in Cuba. In July 1898, the US defeated the Spanish at the Battle of San Juan Heights (Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill), the most significant US land victory and the final major battle of the war. Troops of the Twenty-fourth Infantry and the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry fought their way up San Juan Heights alongside white regulars and the Roughriders⎯the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry. Stories about their bravery and endurance during the fight made headlines. Future President Teddy Roosevelt, the leader of the Roughriders, praised the Buffalo Soldiers for their service and even stated during his vice-presidency campaign in 1900 that black soldiers saved his life in Cuba.


Chapter 3:

The American Civil War: African Americans who fought during the war.

Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven Southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized US forts and other federal assets within its borders. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy asserted control over a third of the US population in eleven states. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued.
Following the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, an organization of African-American troops was commenced in the Mississippi River Valley under the personal supervision of the adjutant-general of the army, Lorenzo Thomas. His first regiment was mustered into service on May 1, 1863, as the 1st Arkansas Volunteers of African Descent, The 2nd Arkansas was one of four regiments of African Americans that was raised in Helena, Phillips County, an important Union held fortified city and naval port on the Mississippi River. Many more Black Regiments were created, and will contribute to the cause of fighting for their freedom throughout
the duration of the Civil War.

On April 7, Miller attended a speech by Adjutant General of the Army Lorenzo Thomas, who was promoting the raising of black regiments for service in the Union army (under white officers). Reaction to Thomas's address was so favorable that three companies of a hundred soldiers each were recruited immediately, forming the nucleus of the 1st Arkansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment (African Descent).

Encouraged by the response to General Thomas's appeal, army officials made plans to create a second black Arkansas unit. Throughout the remainder of the spring, the first companies of the 2nd Arkansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment (African Descent) were formed. Minos Miller volunteered to serve as an officer in this new regiment. On June 12, he wrote to his mother:
"Our regiment is about 300 strong. We are drilling every day. The negros learn fast and will fight well. We have tried ours twice and know they will stand fire".
The regiment was organized at large in Arkansas on September 4, 1863, as the 2nd Regiment Arkansas Volunteer Infantry (African Descent) and assigned to the VII Corps (Union Army). The regiment was raised under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George W. De Costa and Major George W. Burchard and was composed primarily of freed slaves in the Arkansas River Valley. On March 11, 1864, the designation of Regiment changed to 54th U. S. Colored Troops.

United States Colored Troops (USCT) were Union Army regiments during the American Civil War that primarily comprised African Americans, with soldiers from other ethnic groups also serving in USCT units. Established in response to a demand for more units from Union Army commanders, USCT regiments, which numbered 175 in total by the end of the war in 1865, constituted about one-tenth of the manpower of the army, according to historian Kelly Mezurek, author of For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops (The Kent State University Press, 2016). "They served in infantry, artillery, and cavalry." Approximately 20 percent of USCT soldiers were killed in action or died of disease and other causes, a rate about 35 percent higher than that of white Union troops. Numerous USCT soldiers fought with distinction, with 16 receiving the Medal of Honor. The USCT regiments were precursors to the Buffalo Soldier units which fought in the American Indian Wars.

54th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment:
In the summer of 1863, the regiment, which had not been officially mustered into federal service, as it had not yet gained the required number of troops, was located at Helena, Arkansas, organizing and drilling. The regiment was present for the Confederate attack upon Helena on July 4, 1863, occupying the far left of the union line. The unit remained at Helena from its official formation until May, 1864.

The Regiment participated in the following actions:

Fort Gibson September 16, 1864.
Cabin Creek September 19, 1864.
Cow Creek, Kansas, November 14 and 28, 1864.

The 54th Massachusetts was mustered out of Federal Service by companies between August 8 and December 31, 1866

Not to be confused with the aforementioned , 54th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit was the second African-American regiment, following the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment, organized in the Northern states during the Civil War. Authorized by the Emancipation Proclamation, the regiment consisted of African-American enlisted men commanded by white officers. The 54th Massachusetts was a major force in the pioneering of African American civil war regiments, with 150 all-black regiments being raised after the raising of the 54th Massachusetts. The unit was the focus of the famous 1989 epic war drama 'Glory', featuring Denzel Washington, and Morgan
Freeman depicting the valor and heroism of colored troops during the Civil War.

World War 1:
Overview: Despite their service, African-Americans faced severe segregation, discrimination, and even violence within the American
military, and at home.

Over 350,000 African-Americans served in World War 1 in segregated units, primarily in labor and stevedore battalions, but a
few combat units like the acclaimed 369th Infantry Regiment (Harlem Hellfighters) fought bravely for the French Army and earned
recognition, through the war offered little immediate progress in civil rights at home.
On April 6, 1917, the same day that the United States declared war on Germany, the 15th New York Regiment was federalized and
became part of the US Army. In May 1918 it was redesignated the 369th Infantry Regiment. They joined the 93rd Division and were
"loaned" to the French.

Combat Units:
Two all-Black combat divisions, the 92nd, and the 93rd were created for the war. And the 369th Infantry Regiment, a part of the
93rd Division, served with the French Army, becoming the only American unit to fight under a foreign command.
They received the French Croix de Guerre medal for their heroism and were the first American unit to reach the Rhine River.

Despite the African-American Soldiers proving they can fight as soldiers, and the heroism they displayed while fighting along the
Rhine with the French, they still had to endure the fact that they were still considered as "second-class" citizens in America.
Their hope for a "civil rights revolution" was to be ignored; and they { African-Americans} continued to face oppression, Jim Crow
Laws, and racial brutality upon their return home.

World War 2:
Overview: During World War 2, over a million African-Americans served in the military, experiencing intense patriotism alongside
severe racial segregation and discrimination within the military and at home.

They fought in every theater of war, in roles from combat to support and labor, yet faced limited opportunities for promotion and
were often assigned to menial tasks. They served in every branch of the military: the Army: the Navy: Marine Corps:, and the
newly formed Army Air Forces. They fought in the Pacific, Mediterranean, and European war zones, including the Battle of the Bulge and the D-Day invasion. These African American service men and women constituted the largest number enlisted in the Army and Navy, and the first to serve in the Marine Corp after 1798.

However, as members of the United States military, this Greatest African American Generation encountered unequal treatment and limited opportunities for promotion and transfer due to the practice of racial segregation adhered to by the U.S. military, as well as the nation. Despite the 1940 United States Selective Service and Training Act outlawing racial discrimination, African Americans were only accepted if there were openings in units and training facilities specifically designated for their “racial” category. Since most U.S. bases did not have such additional areas that included housing, only half of the nation’s African American volunteers and draftees were actually inducted into the U.S. military during World War II. Those who were inducted usually served in large units whose members represented a wide range of skills and levels of formal education. All of them conducted their work assignments separate from white soldiers, received medical treatment from separate blood banks, hospitals, and medical staff, and socialized only in segregated settings. If they left their stateside bases, they often experienced hostility from local white civilian communities.

Moreover, the authority of African American officers was restricted to African American units only and, if there were white officers in these units, the African American officers were not allowed to have higher positions. In addition, pernicious beliefs of “race” often stalled the use of African American troops in combat units and excluded them from receiving recognition for their World War II service. It was not until 1993 that the first Medal of Honor was awarded to an African American World War II veteran. African-American women
also contributed to the war.

About 4,000 African American women joined the Army’s Women’s Army Corps. While they often experienced racially-integrated instructional facilities, they were usually assigned to menial labor positions. However, one of these African American units served overseas as a postal battalion. They also served in limited numbers as nurses in the Army Nurse Corps and a few in the Navy’s WAVES.

Service and Segregation:

Serving in Segregated Units: Despite the "Double V" campaign for victory over fascism and racism, the U.S. military remained segregated, with African Americans often serving in separate, support-oriented units and facing harsh discrimination in training and facilities.
Distinguished Military Units: African American soldiers fought with distinction, including the all-black 332nd Fighter Group (the Tuskegee Airmen) and the 761st Tank Battalion ("Black Panthers").

African American Nurses: African American nurses served globally in the Army Nurse Corps, treating soldiers and POWs.

"Dorie" Miller's Heroism: Doris "Dorie" Miller, a crewman aboard the USS West Virginia, became the first African American to receive the Navy Cross for his actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Home Front Contributions:

War Industries: Millions of African Americans moved to Northern cities as part of the Second Great Migration, taking jobs in war industries and facing discrimination in wages and roles.

Support for the War: African Americans also contributed by selling war bonds, conserving resources, and performing civil defense duties.

Chapter 3: Part 3 B.

The Golden Thirteen: US Navy selected Black Soldiers to become the first Navy commissioned officers.

When World War II began, Black men were regulated to menial tasks, allowed only as cleaners and cooks. A relentless civil rights campaign
forced the Navy in 1942 to reconsider a Black man's role. But it would take another two years before the Navy could stomach the thought
of black officers. The thirteen courageous men who broke that color barrier were given little accord once commissioned, and their story
has too often been overlooked when recounting the saga of World War II and the coming civil rights movement.
They were not military men. They were metalsmiths, teachers, lawyers, college students, the grandsons of slaves. They come from all over
the country, had seen family lynched, been denied jobs on account of their skin color, been subject to the worst forms of verbal abuse.

They had enlisted for a branch that tried hard as it is to keep them out and then told to prove the Navy wrong, to prove that black men could
equal white men. So they did. For three months in 1944, these men, isolated from the world and the war, segregated from white sailors and
even separated from black sailors, studied and trained harder than they ever had in their lives. If black men were to ever rise above the rate
of petty officer, if any were to command a ship or graduate from the Naval Academy, if any were ever to lead white men in battle, then this
experiment with these officer candidates had to succeed. At the time, January 1944 there were 100,000 black men in the Navy.
The men were Jesse Arbor, from Cotton Plant, Alabama a college drop out. George Clinton Cooper, from Washington, North Carolina. John
Reagan, who's family moved from Texas to Montana so he could focus on playing football in high school.Sam Barnes;
Reginald Goodwin; Dalton Baugh; James Hair; Frank Sublett; Dennis Nelson; Graham Martin; Phil Barnes; Charles Lear, a warrant officer;
William Sylvester White;

There were a total of 16 men selected but the Navy reluctantly promoted 12 to ensign, and one warrant officer. The other three men were:
Augustus Alves, Lewis Williams, and J.B. Pinkney.

To ensure their failure, the normal training period of 16 weeks was reduced to 8 weeks for the black cadets. When they realized that someone in the Navy wanted them to wash out, the cadets covered up the windows of their barracks and studied all night. When they were tested, the entire group passed with high marks. Disbelief in the chain of command that an all-black cadet class could achieve higher scores than an all-white one meant that the black sailors had to suffer the indignity of retaking their tests. Again, all 16 passed; the class average at graduation was 3.89.

Although all sixteen members of the class passed the course, only twelve were commissioned in March 1944: Jesse Walter Arbor (1914–2000), Phillip George Barnes (1909-1949), Samuel Edward Barnes (1915-1997), Dalton Louis Baugh Sr. (1912-1985), George Clinton Cooper (1916-2002), Reginald Ernest Goodwin (1907-1974), James Edward Hair (1915–1992), Graham Edward Martin (1919-2006), Dennis Denmark Nelson (1907-1979), John Walter Reagan (1920–1994), Frank Ellis Sublett (1920-2006), and William S. White (1914-2004) were commissioned as Ensigns; Charles Byrd Lear (1916–1946) was appointed as a Warrant Officer. Augustus Alves, J.B. Pinkney, and Lewis "Mummy" Williams also passed the exam but were not given commissions. The reason why only 13 gained rank, despite all the men being successful in training was never explained, but it is noted that this rate brought the pass-rate down to the level of the average class of white candidates.

Because Navy policy barred blacks from being assigned to combat ships, the first class of black officers were assigned to command shore logistics units, small tug and tender ships, and training African American enlisted.


Chapter 3: Part 3 C.

President Truman signs executive orders to end segregation in the armed forces:

In early 1948, sometime after the formation of the United States Air Force as a separate military unit President Harry Truman was
approaching his second term and he was looking at the lingering problem with segregation in the armed forces. He had thought long and hard about this problem since the ending of the first World War. He was in the process of creating executive order 9981.
But before he could there were enormous obstacles to his bringing the order into legislation; The South would explode, the
Democratic Party would fracture, the military would resist, and President Truman's approval rating, already cratering, would plummet even further.
The 1948 election was less than a year away, and the president was already the underdog. This would hand the presidency to the
Republicans on a silver platter. His advisers begged him to wait. After the election, they said, "Win first, then you can do whatever you want." But President Truman had seen this game before. He'd watched politicians promise change after they secured power, only to
discover that after the election, there was always another election to worry about.

There was always a reason to wait, always a poll to consider, always a donor to appease. And while they waited, while they calculated, while they triangulated, black soldiers kept getting beaten, kept getting blinded, kept getting killed.
For the first time in his political career, President Harry Truman, the machine politician, the compromise candidate, the man who'd
built his career on knowing when to bend, decided he was done bending. But he still had one massive problem. He had
no idea how to actually do it.

February 2nd, 1948. the Oval Office. A Philip Randolph walked into the room like a man with nothing to lose. Randolph was the
president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car porters, the most powerful black labor leader in America, and he'd been fighting
segregation since before Truman was in politics. He was 60 years old with the bearing of a preacher and the tactical mind of a chess grandmaster.

He sat across from President Truman and said something that made the room go silent. Mr. president, if you do not desegregate
the military, I will personally lead a campaign urging black Americans to refuse induction. The president's aid nearly choked.
This wasn't a protest. This wasn't a petition. This was a direct threat to encourage mass draft resistance during the early stages
of what might become World War II with the Soviet Union.

"You'll go to prison," President Truman said quietly. "Yes, sir. I expect I will," Randolph replied. And there will be thousands of young black men in those cells with me. We fought in your war. We died in your war. And we came home to a country that treats us like enemies. So tell me, Mr. President, why should we fight in the next one?

The meeting lasted 2 hours. When Randolph left, President Truman sat alone in his office for another hour, smoking, thinking.


Everyone thought the president would dig in, defend his authority, maybe even prosecute Randolph for sedition. What no
one expected was what President Truman did next. He picked up the phone and called Clark Clifford, his special counsel.

Clifford was 31 years old, brilliant, ambitious, and the closest thing the president had to a political strategist who could think beyond the next election. I need you to draft an executive order, President Truman said. Desegregating the military. All branches, no exceptions, and I need it done in a done way that the generals can't sabotage it."
Clifford thought his boss had lost his mind. "Sir, you understand what this will?
I understand perfectly." President Truman interrupted. "I also understand that we're about to tell young black men to
fight communism abroad while we treat them like second-class citizens at home."

How do you think that argument goes? How do you think it looks when we're lecturing the Soviets about human rights
while we're running our military like apartheid South Africa?
Clifford had no answer to that. But he had a different concern. Even if you sign it, the military will just ignore it.
They'll slow roll the implementation. They'll create exceptions. They'll pay lip service while keeping everything exactly the same.

This was the real problem. Executive orders only matter if someone enforces them. and the military brass had already made it clear they had no intention of complying. President Truman leaned back in his chair. And then he said something that revealed he'd been
thinking about this much longer than anyone realized.

Then we make them compete for survival. Here was the president's hidden genius. He understood that the military services hated each
other almost as much as they hated the idea of integration. The army, navy, air force, and marines were locked in a vicious budget battle.
President Truman was planning massive defense cuts after World War II, and each branch was desperately trying to prove they
deserved funding over the others. They would do almost anything to stay
relevant. So, President Truman built a trap. He would issue the executive order, but he wouldn't mandate a specific timeline.

He wouldn't tell them exactly how to integrate. Instead, he'd make it a competition. Whichever branch integrated fastest and most effectively
would have a leg up in budget negotiations. Whichever branch dragged its feet would find itself on the chopping block. Let them race
each other to compliance, President Truman said. Let their rivalry do what morality couldn't. It was brilliant. It was cynical. It was the
most politically sophisticated move of the president's career. But he still had to actually sign the thing.

July 1948, the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. President Truman's party was imploding. Southern Democrats, the
DixieCrats, had already ended they were walking out over the Civil Rights platform. Strom Thurman, the governor of South Carolina, was
preparing to run as a third party candidate specifically to siphon off southern votes. The Democrats were fracturing in real time on national
television and everyone agreed that President Truman's presidency was over.

His advisers made one final desperate plea. Wait until after the election, please. President Truman's response is documented in multiple sources.
He told them, "My stomach turned over when I learned that Negro soldiers just back from overseas were being dumped out of army trucks
in Mississippi and beaten. I can't approve of such going on and I shall never approve of it as long as I am here.
Then he added something that revealed the decision had already been made possibly years earlier. I've been thinking about this for a long time.

I've studied the history of discrimination. I've read about what happened to black soldiers after World War I. I've seen the reports from World
War II and I've decided that I'm either going to be president for all Americans or I'm not going to be president at all.
On July 26th, 1948, exactly 4 months before the election, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9,981.








Impact and Legacy:

Paving the Way for the Civil Rights Movement: The shared experiences of African Americans in service and the fight for equality laid crucial groundwork for the post-war Civil Rights Movement.

Presidential Desegregation: Following the war, President Truman ordered the full desegregation of the U.S. military in 1948, a step that spurred further civil rights progress.

Returning to Prejudice: Many returning African American veterans faced continued prejudice and Jim Crow laws, reinforcing the need for continued efforts for equality.


Korean Conflict:
Overview: An estimated 600,000 African Americans served in the military during the Korean War. Despite President Truman's 1948 executive order to desegregate the armed forces, the Army was still largely segregated when the war began in 1950.

The Korean War was the first large-scale conflict where African Americans fought alongside White Soldiers. Many African-American
Soldiers fought alongside White Soldiers in integrated units, and stayed in the same living quarters.
Over 5,000 Black Soldiers were killed in action during the war; some even chose to remain behind in China after the war to escape
racism at home. Some 21 American (POW) prisoners of war, including Clarence Adams, chose to defect to China.

Pioneering Figures:

Captain Daniel "Chappie" James Jr. commanded integrated fighter squadrons, while Frederick Branch became the Black officer in the
United States Marines. Also, of note Ensign Brown Jesse L. Brown became the first Black aviator in the United States Navy.
He was on an important bombing mission where he was shot down, becoming the first Black pilot in the war to be killed.


Racism existed throughout the armed services at the time, but the Navy, whose leaders feared mixing races in the close quarters aboard ship could disrupt cohesion and damage morale, was especially hostile to people of color. The first black Army officer graduated West Point in 1877, and by World War II, the Army already had a black general. The Navy, on the other hand, had suspended enlistment of blacks altogether from 1919 to 1933, and at the start of World War II, still denied black men entry into the general service, refusing to train them as electricians or machinists and insisting they work as messmen, where they were limited to serving meals and shining shoes. When civil rights leaders demanded fairer treatment they were confronted with an intransigent bureaucracy that was far more concerned with efficiency than with equality, by a Navy secretary who was certain that integration would bring disaster and by admirals who were adamant that worthy black men could not be found in the whole of the United States.

In January 1942, one month after Pearl Harbor, the Navy’s General Board, a group of admirals who advised the secretary of the Navy, met in Washington to discuss the possibility of black men training for the general service-ratings, allowing them to do more than cook meals and clean floors.


It was an idea that the NAACP, civil rights leaders and black columnists said was necessary if the United States were truly to stand on the side of democracy. And it was an idea the Navy’s top brass considered a definite step backward. Major General Thomas Holcomb, commandant of the Marine Corps, called the enlistment of black men “absolutely tragic,” and told the General Board that African Americans had every opportunity “to satisfy their aspiration to serve in the Army.” Their desire to enter the naval service, he said, was largely an effort “to break into a club that doesn’t want them.”

Just six days after the General Board released its report saying it could not comply with a request to enlist 5,000 black men into the Navy’s general service, Roosevelt, criticized in recent years by historians who believe he could have been more aggressive on civil rights, overruled his admirals and his Navy secretary. The president wrote that complete desegregation “would seriously impair the general average efficiency of the Navy” but also insisted that there were some additional tasks black men could perform in the general service without hurting cohesion aboard ships.

Over the next 18 months, thousands of black men would train as quartermasters, machinists and electricians, learning skills that would boost black employment and prosperity after the war.

But even as some barriers fell, one remained: At the end of 1943, there were still no black officers. There was also growing political pressure on the president and the Navy secretary to rectify what seemed to many a glaring blemish. Adlai Stevenson, the future two-time Democratic nominee for president, convinced Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox that the situation was untenable. Stevenson, at the time Knox’s speechwriter and confidant, told his boss, an efficiency expert, that keeping black men out of the officer corps was now unquestionably inefficient.


There were 60,000 black men in the Navy, and 12,000 more were entering every month, Stevenson wrote to Knox on September 29, 1943. “Obviously, this cannot go on indefinitely without accepting some officers or trying to explain why we don’t,” Stevenson said. “I feel very emphatically that we should commission a few negroes.”




Knox assented. Three months later, Barnes and his comrades were in Armstrong’s office, learning they were going to make history. Many of Barnes’ fellow officer trainees were cynical, not yet willing to believe the Navy would really allow black officers, even after they completed their training. But each man swore he’d give it his all anyway. “We believed there were people who hoped we’d fail,” Barnes later recalled. “We were determined to succeed in spite of the burden that was being placed on our shoulders.”

Giving black men a chance did not mean they’d be given equal treatment. Great Lakes Naval Training Station was home to an elite service school with plenty of equipment that could aid their training. But the 16 candidates saw almost none of that. They trained separately from all other sailors, drilled apart, and ate alone, living in their own barracks in the segregated section of the station, essentially under house arrest. The officer corps was ready to be integrated. Great Lakes Naval Training Station was not.

Many in this first group recalled in interviews and oral histories that their white instructors weren’t all that interested in whether the men passed, failed or learned anything at all. Some instructors, it seemed to the officer candidates, acted as if this whole exercise was a waste of time. Lt. Paul Richmond, who designed the curriculum, was particularly hard on the men, they later said. Richmond, in his own oral history, said he had no malicious intent. He wanted to make the course as tough as he could because he knew the men would be scrutinized once they graduated, and because he had so much to teach in such a short period of time. Richmond, who at age 23 was younger than all of the men taking the course, relied on his experience at the Naval Academy to build the program. Making it difficult—being gruff, callous, even indifferent—was how you molded men into officers. And, he said, if he scared them a little by telling them that they weren’t up to snuff or that they weren’t going to make it, it was only to motivate them.
Regardless of his intent, Richmond’s attitude made the group even more determined. They were going to show him and every other Richmond-like figure they’d ever met. And so they did.


The men were supposed to be in bed with the lights out at 10:30 p.m., but well past that hour, they sat together in the bathroom, flashlights in hand, studying the lessons of the past day and preparing for the day ahead. They draped sheets over the windows so no one outside would notice the light. They were intent on proving that their “selection was justified,” Barnes said, “and that we weren’t a party to tokenism.”

Jesse Arbor, a quartermaster, taught semaphore and Morse code. He’d give a prompt, Barnes remembered, such as “a ship approaching on such-and-such side.” The men would tap it out on the wall of the restroom. If they got it wrong, they’d start again. Even their toughest instructors weren’t as demanding as they were of themselves. When the men went to class the next day there was little a teacher could do to catch them off guard.

Despite the 20-hour days, the ridicule and the racism, the 16 candidates never outwardly showed any sign of dissent. They knew that losing their temper could give credence to the pervasive belief that black men lacked the demeanor necessary for command.

Once, the officer candidates were lined up for a medical exam. “All right, you boys, strip down,” someone yelled. “Everything off. Strip down.” “Stand over there,” came another order. “Stand at attention.”
Arbor had white splotches on the skin near the top of his penis. A white pharmacist’s mate grabbed a 36-inch ruler and yelled out, “Look at this, look at this. Here’s this Negro here. Look at this man, half white and half black.” As he spoke, he rapped Arbor’s penis with the ruler, causing him to wince with each whack.

His comrades were certain a riot was about to start. This was it. This was the moment they would surely be kicked out.

“Hey, boy, where did you get this thing from?” the pharmacist’s mate asked, still whacking Arbor’s penis.
Arbor looked him directly in the eye, just the way the Navy had taught.

“Well, you see, sir, I was raised in a white neighborhood.”

Nothing more than a snicker escaped his peers’ lips, and the white men, furious that they could not get a rise out of the officer candidates, stormed off.

Their restraint was not an accident. These men had been winnowed from hundreds of potential candidates, chosen because the Navy deemed them not too extreme in their attitudes. Like Jackie Robinson, who would break baseball’s color barrier three years later, these men were chosen because they were expected to suffer these indignities quietly and gracefully.