Until the 21st century, the contributions of African-American soldiers in World War II barely registered in America’s collective memory of that war.
The “tan soldiers,” as the black press affectionately called them, were also for the most part left out of the triumphant narrative of America’s “Greatest Generation.” In order to tell their story of helping defeat Nazi Germany in my 2010 book, “
Breath of Freedom,” I had to conduct research in more than 40 different archives in the U.S. and Germany.
African-American GIs of WWII: Fighting for democracy abroad and at home
At a time when we are celebrating the 75th Anniversary of D Day, we can not forgot that many of America's black soldiers who served in that event and WWII as a whole are being left out of those celebrations.
Think of how they must have felt when they were
There is no doubt the Black man suffered much and more
the further you go back in our history.....
I saw an old Black Gentleman on tv the other day that was a
pilot and when he came home from the war and tried to get
a job with one of the airlines he was told they didn’t hire Black people.
Instead of giving up he went on with plan B and became very successful.
America is guilty of some terrible horrible wrongs...
But the fact is no Country on Earth has done more to right it’s wrongs than America.
You can’t name a place on the face of the Earth where anyone of any race or creed
has a better chance to succeed than the good ole USA....
None of us are responsible for the sins of our fathers....
We can’t change the past, all we have is the future.
fighting for someone else's liberation and freedom while they were being denied those precious gifts at home.[/QUOTE
I do not think American Negroes should have been forced to participate in combat units and very few were if any...the great majority served in non-combat roles such as cooks and truck drivers....which was approriate due to their place in society.
708 Negroes were killed in WWII.
During World War II, 1.2 million African Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces and 708 were killed in action.
Now compare that to.......white soldiers who suffered over 400 thousand deaths.
That is the reality they will not tell you....whilst they play their political game.
At the beginning of the Korean war the Army was still segregated.....and the black units in Korea did not fight well to say the least....so it was decided at the highest level to integrate the Armed Forces and thus eliminate all those black units that had the reputation of bugging out when the action got heavy.
In late September 1950, two months after the beginning of the Korean War, the commander of the 25th Infantry Division, Major General William B. Kean, requested that the Eighth Army disband the all-black 24th Infantry regiment because it had demonstrated that it was "untrustworthy and incapable of carrying out missions expected of an infantry regiment."
The decision to integrate was made in the hope that black soldiers would fight better under white leadership and for the most part it was found to be true.
Talk to any soldier who saw much combat in Korea and it will quickly become apparant that they had little respect for the black soldiers. I remember one telling me about a incident in Korea....some black truck drivers were ordered to deliver some much needed ammunition to the front line as the Chinese were making a big attack....the black truck drivers refused to do it...as in they considered that a dangerous thing to do....anyhow when the front line troops who had suffered lots of casualties that could have been prevented if they had received the ammunition supply, heard about what happened they sent a squad back behind the lines to eliminate the problem...they wasted the black truck drivers.
Then the vietname situation...which is something else that is covered up.
And in more recent times.....when the National Guard began getting called up and many of the blacks in the guard were very upset....I remember one saying...'I did not join the national guard to go to war.'
