1. 11-11-11

    By: Christopher Moore, Curator and Special Projects Coordinator, Schomburg Center 

    Veterans Day honors and remembers all of our men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces. Today let’s remember all and take a look at some of the 1.1 million African Americans who served during World War II, like the 555th “Triple Nickel” Paratroopers, the 666th “Hell’s Angels” Quartermaster Truck Company and the 6888th “6-Triple 8” Central Postal Battalion. African-American soldiers have served and died in every national military campaign since the Revolutionary War.

    In the winter of 1945, a colossal backlog of mail sent to American soldiers in Europe following the D-Day invasion, became the task of the all-black 6888th “6-Triple 8” Central Postal Battalion. Comprised of 855 enlisted African-American women and officers, the 6888th was sent to Birmingham, England and later to Rouen and Paris. The women were charged with sorting mail to approximately seven million American troops stationed in Europe. The battalion was commanded by Major Charity Adams Earley, the highest ranking African-American woman in the military by the end of the war.

    Before motorcycle gangs, Hell’s Angels referred to the African-American drivers of the 666th Quartermaster Truck Company. From December 1944 until March 1945, the Triple Six drove 30-mile stretch between Eindhoven and Nijmegen, Holland, which was heavily bombarded, carrying troops, ammunition, fuel, rations and other vital supplies. They were both angels and lifeline to the 101st Airborne Division at the Battle of the Bulge.

    Assigned to Operation Firefly in 1944, the all-black 555th “Triple Nickel” Parachute Infantry Battalion was deployed to the western United States to defend the nation against an odd but dangerous Japanese weapon—bomb carrying balloons. The black paratroopers were dropped in the Pacific Northwest to fight forest fires set by Japanese incendiary balloons. During the mission, the 555th earned the nickname the Smoke Jumpers. Not until May 22, 1945, did the U.S. War Department admit that fires in the northwestern U.S. were caused by the Japanese balloons. In the interest of national security, neither the fires nor the heroism of the Triple Nickel were reported in the news.

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