Executive Order 9981

I took a fellow senior to the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the desegregation of the American Armed Forces by President Harry S.  (Executive Order 9981) Truman on July 26 1948.  Before this time, all the American Military Units were segregated, and the Army had only five Black officers in 1940 and there were only 4 or 5 thousand Black men in the Army with the same number in the Navy.  There were no Black Navy officers, and the Marines had forbidden the enlistment of Negros, Mulattos or Indians since 1789.

Black troops had been fighting bravely for the United States, since before the country was established.  Black troops were mostly commanded by White officers until World War Two.  While few Black units were permitted in the combat role, those who were performed well.

Segregation was enforced on the 1.1 million Black troops in WW II.  As a result, there was a Black Army and a White Army, a Black Navy and a White Navy, a Black Air Force and a White Air Force, and a Black Marine Corps and a White Marine Corps.  The Coast Guard was more integrated, but only with enlisted men.  This was a very inefficient way to run the military.

After the war, some of the more forward thinkers in the military and politics wanted to integrate the military.  There was considerable resistance to integration in both the civilian and military circles.  President Truman had the courage to take the political risks when he integrated the military just before the presidential election, which he was not expected to win.  He took the risk because he believed in integration and he won the election.

The military was reluctant to desegregate and was slow in implementing President Truman’s orders.  The last segregated units were not disbanded until 1954, six years later.  By 1990 General Colin Powel who spoke at this event, was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

This time in 1945

This time in 1945 we were in the middle of the Battle of the Bulge, a 44 day battle starting with the German Attack December 16, 1944. There were about half a million Americans and about the same number of attacking Germans. This was the coldest winter in Europe an decades, and everyone suffered, but the Germans were far better dressed.

The Americans were still in their summer uniforms, and suffered 80,000 casualties of which 19,000 died. 26,000 were captured, and the rest 35,000 were wounded, or injured, frequently by the weather.

To get an idea of what the men suffered, go out in your back yard and try to dig a hole in the frozen ground about six feet long, two feet wide and five feet deep. Sit in the hole all night for weeks on end. Wear long underwear but a summer uniform and uninsulated boots, don’t forget your steel helmet, it concentrates the cold wonderfully. Your gloves are thin and the temperature is 20 below and there is a wind. It is cold beyond your imagination, and by the way the Germans are trying to kill you.

If you get wounded, your chances of getting aid before you die of shock are not as good as in the summer. At random intervals shells, bombs, and bullets come screaming in at you.

Now during the day go out in several feet of snow and try to fight the Germans. There was a Black tanker who had twenty blankets and slept with ten under him and ten over him, he was never warm. In spite of this and being caught by surprise The U.S. Army prevailed. That was the kind of guts the Greatest Generation had.

So if you think your life is tough, think of what it cost to keep your freedom. We can’t thank them enough.

How the Czechs fooled the Germans

When I was taking some post graduate courses in Franklin Pierce College, I had a professor who was in the 10th Mountain Division in Northern Italy. He had five German shells land very close to his foxhole, but none of them exploded, all duds. I figured God was on his side. General Patton was out touring the front when a shell landed near him, it was a dud, plop in the mud. The General took it as a sign from god.

A B17 came back from a mission and the ground crew found eleven unexploded 20mm shells. The shells were sent to Ordinance which took them apart and found ten shells had no bursting charge, just an empty cavity. The last shell had no bursting charge, but there was a note, which said in Czech “This is the best we can do for you at this time.” The Germans had a lot of trouble with quality control. The Germans used slave labor, and slaves have an attitude problem. They don’t want the people who are enslaving them to win.

Here is how the Czechs fooled the Germans. After the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia, they took over the Czech Arms Industry, one of the best in Europe. So there was German plans and inspectors, controlling Czech workers, who were not happy. The German inspection like everyone else had to have lunch and go to the bathroom.  The Czech workers told him not to worry, they would keep up production while he was gone. When the German inspector got back he inspected the next shell on the line but never checked the shells made while he was away. The Czech workers noticed this and produced junk when he was away. The Germans new they were being sabotaged but could not stop it.

The battleship USS Taxes was exchanging gunfire with a German shore battery during the Normandy invasion. The ship was hit several times, but they were duds.

The British secrete service had a jacket bottom which had a compartment in it that could be unscrewed and used to hide microfilm or messages. The Germans figured it out and the British were about to stop production when one of their men said reverse the threads. When the reversed thread was used the Germans never figured it out and the British used the new bottom for the rest of the war.