military history (including a young then-Second Lieutenant Daniel Inouye, who lost his arm in Italy and who would eventually receive the Medal of Honor). We should never forget that during the Second World War the 442nd Infantry Regiment (also known as the “Go for Broke” regiment) of Japanese-Americans became the most combat-decorated regiment in U.S. Davis would become America’s first Black general officer in the United States Air Force. Tuskegee airman and fighter pilot Benjamin O. Very few American bombers accompanied by a Tuskegee airman escort were lost over Europe. We should never forget, for example, that German fighter pilots who came up to dispute the skies against American World War II bomber crews were rightfully petrified by the “Red Tails” of the Tuskegee Airmen. These American heroes fought in segregated units while their families endured racism, segregation, and even internment at home. But as difficult as that time was, I am confident it pales with what service members of the post-World War II and Korean War era faced as they struggled to implement President Truman’s desegregation order.ĭesegregation of the military was a vital chapter in a proud history of Americans of all colors and creeds serving our nation, fighting enemies whose empires were built on racist principles and racial supremacy. Dealing with near-constant racial tension, service in the military of that day often taxed our commitment and patriotism to the limit. As a young enlisted man and then as an officer I saw firsthand the often gut-wrenching impact of racial upheaval in the 1970s and ‘80s. When I was commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1976, the Marines had only been fully integrated for 16 years. I use the word “forge” deliberately, as the process of integration-which was not completed until after the Korean War-was an often painful and slow process, full of bureaucratic roadblocks to true inclusion. armed forces, forging the diversity of my generation of military leaders and immeasurably strengthening American military capacity and cohesion. Army Secretary Kenneth Claiborne Royall was forced from office in 1949 after refusing to desegregate the Army.īut Truman’s order launched the modern era of the U.S. military during World War II, in April 1948 then-General Dwight Eisenhower testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that segregation was needed to protect unit cohesion (an action for which he would later express regret). Even though over a million Black men and thousands of Black women served in the U.S. But President Truman’s actions were highly controversial at the time. Now grown gray from too many wars and the relentless passage of time, these Americans are living examples of what this country can become when we are truly led from the White House, instead of battered by shrill vitriol.Ĭontemporary audiences might be tempted to view EO 9981 as the outcome of logic and advocacy working together to right a historic wrong, and they would be partly right. I can only imagine what our honored veterans of President Truman’s era must think of this current moment.
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