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.