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UNIT PROFILE– 761ST TANK BATTALION (COLORED) BLACK HISTORY MONTH Of the three armor battalions composed of Black soldiers in the segregated U.S. Army of World War II, the 761st "Black Panther" Tank Battalion is arguably the best known. Constituted on 15 March 1942 in the Army of the United States and activated on 1 April 1942 at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, it was initially equipped with the M5 Stuart tank but transitioned to the M4 Sherman when the Army began fielding that system to the non-divisional armor units. After the battalion completed training in the United States - which included serving as the "aggressor" force against the student units of the tank destroyer school and participation in a phase of the Louisiana Maneuvers, the 761st was deemed "combat ready" and shipped overseas to the European Theater of Operations. Following a short stay in England, the battalion arrived in France on 10 October 1944, and was assigned to the Third Army commanded by the legendary proponent of armored warfare, Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr. As a separate tank battalion, the 761st was attached to Infantry divisions - which had no organic armor units - for combat operations. As such, the "Black Panthers" entered combat for the first time on 7 November 1944. In 183 days of combat operations while attached to the all-white 26th, 71st, 79th, 87th, 95th and 103d Infantry Divisions, the 761st participated in the Allied drive through France, Patton’s relief of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, and the breaching of the Siegfried Line. By the end of the war the Black Panthers had made it all the way to Austria (where they liberated the Gunskirchen concentration camp); the 761st was inactivated on 1 June 1946 in Germany. During WWII, the Black Panthers earned a Medal of Honor, a Presidential Unit Citation, 11 Silver Stars, 69 Bronze Stars, 296 Purple Hearts, and four campaign streamers (Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe). #Armyhistory #USArmy #TRADOC #WWII #WW2 #WW2History #Patton #Bastogne #BlackPanther #ShermanTank #BlackHistoryMonth #ArmyHeritage U.S. Army U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. #repostedfrom @armyhistory (at Columbia, Tennessee) https://www.instagram.com/p/CohszLPuF7Z/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Since its inception during the Civil War, 25 Medals of Honor have been awarded to U.S. Army soldiers of Native American descent. The first soldier of Sioux Nation heritage to receive America’s highest military honor was Master Sergeant Woodrow W. Keeble, a combat veteran of World War Two and the Korean War who earned the Medal of Honor for actions on 20 October 1951. During WWII, Keeble was attached to the 164th Infantry Regiment when it became the first Army unit sent to reinforce the Marine Corps’ defense of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, earning repute for his skill with a Browning Automatic Rifle. Keeble fought his way through the Pacific Theater’s island-hopping campaign along with the rest of the 164th and was discharged in 1946. Keeble’s retirement was short-lived however – in 1951, Keeble rejoined the fight as part of the 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division in Korea. As a platoon leader during Operation Nomad-Polar, the final major U.N. offensive of the war, Keeble distinguished himself during an assault against Chinese positions on Hill 765. As his platoon’s advance ground to a halt under withering fire on the steep hillside terrain, Keeble drove forward in a harrowing one-man attack. Although he was being showered with grenades and machine gun fire Keeble pressed forward, destroying three enemy machine gun nests and flooding enemy trenches with automatic fire. Buoyed by their sergeant’s valor, the men of Keeble’s platoon rallied to his aid, securing the hilltop and completing their mission. Keeble was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1952, upgraded to the Medal of Honor in 2008. He also earned two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, and four Purple Hearts across his Army career. #Armyhistory #USArmy #TRADOC #MilitaryHistory #WWII #KoreanWar #MOH #WorldWarTwo #WW2 #WW2History #Sioux #MedalOfHonor Posted @withrepost • @armyhistory #nativeamericanheritagemonth (at Spring Hill, Tennessee) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClL9DivuaZN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

UNIT PROFILE – 54TH MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY REGIMENT The Emancipation Proclamation’s promulgation in 1863 opened the Union Army’s ranks to Black soldiers for the first time, allowing Black Americans to fight for the Union’s preservation and the end of slavery. The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was among the first all-Black units to be stood up. Led by COL Robert Gould Shaw (scion of a prominent abolitionist family) and promoted by prominent figures like Frederick Douglass, the 54th was flooded with recruits. Despite Confederate promises to punish captured Black soldiers and their white officers with summary execution for promoting “servile insurrection,” the 54th marched to war in high spirits, leaving Boston on 28 MAY. From 18 – 19 JUL the Union began operations to capture Fort Wagner (a critical part of the harbor defenses of Charleston, South Carolina) following an early unsuccessful attack from 10 – 11 JUL. Deploying a force of 5,000 infantry in a frontal assault, the Union placed the 54th in the vanguard of the attack force, sending them charging across an open field towards Ft. Wagner under withering rifle and artillery fire rained on them by the 1,800 Confederate defenders. COL Shaw led the 54th up the fortifications, rallying his men with a cry of “Forward Fifty-Fourth!” from atop the ramparts before being killed. Despite their commander’s death the 54th pushed on, engaging the rebels in bitter hand-to-hand fighting. Despite 54th’s best efforts, the Union was unable to break through the fort’s defenses; the 54th paid an exorbitant price for its extraordinary valor, suffering a staggering 42% casualty rate (280 of the 600 of its men who fought in the Second Battle of Ft. Wagner). The stories of the 54th’s heroism quickly spread across the Union, motivating Black Americans to enlist in the U.S. Army. Between 1863 and 1865 nearly 200,000 Black soldiers served the cause of liberty, contributing roughly 10% of the U.S. Army’s Civil War manpower. #Armyhistory #USArmy #TRADOC #CivilWar #CivilWarHistory #ArmyHeritage #MilitaryHistory #BlackHistoryMonth #54thmassachusetts Posted @withregram • @armyhistory (at Army Recruiting Columbia, TN) https://www.instagram.com/p/CocK6HVutK2/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

The first Medal of Honor award classified "Top Secret." Hiroshi "Hershey" H. Miyamura #KoreanWar Miyamura enlisted in the Army and entered active duty at age 19 in January 1945. As a Japanese-American from New Mexico, he volunteered for and was assigned to Company D, 100th Battalion, 442d Infantry Regimental Combat team in #WWII. He was recalled to active duty in the Korean War, and was assigned to Company H, 7th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. On the evening of 24-25 April 1951, near Taejon-ni, Korea, Company H occupied a defensive position when it was attacked by a numerically superior force of the (Chinese) People's Volunteer Army, better known to U.S. and United Nations troops as Chinese Communist Forces. With his unit in danger of being overrun and their casualties mounting, Cpl. Miyamura, then a machine gun squad leader, left his position to engage a number of the attackers with the bayonet, and killed approximately ten of them in hand-to-hand combat. He repeatedly ordered his men to withdraw as he covered them with rifle fire and damaged the machine gun so the enemy could not use it. He continued firing the machine gun, and although severely wounded in the process, continued to fire and killed about fifty Chinese troops before he ran out of ammunition. Despite the painful injury, he continued to ferociously resist against very uneven odds until he was finally overcome and captured. Miyamura spent 28 months as a prisoner of war. Meanwhile, in recognition of his extraordinary heroism in the battle, the recommendation for the Medal of Honor made its way through the military channels of evaluation and consideration. Because he was a POW, and recognizing the potential propaganda coup the Communists could exploit, the documents were classified "Top Secret," a first in the history of the Medal of Honor. In October of 1953 after the ended and he returned home, President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented now Staff Sergeant Hiroshi "Hershey" H. Miyamura the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at the White House. He died on 29 November 2022, age 97. #armyhistory #MOH #USArmy #TRADOC #MilitaryHistory Posted @withregram • @armyhistory (at Middle Tennessee Area) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnznL7vu4yQ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

The outbreak of the #RevolutionaryWar in 1775 forced many settlers and Native American Nations in the Thirteen Colonies to choose between old loyalties to the British Crown and the new Patriot rebellion. At the time of the Revolution, the Six Nations Confederacy (Iroquois Confederacy) dominated Upstate New York and parts of Canada and had been longstanding allies of British authorities. However, the Six Nations were far from monolithic. The Oneida and Tuscarora, which had become politically oriented towards the colonists in Boston, chose to lend their strength to the Patriot cause in 1776, contributing as many as 5,500 men to Washington’s Continental Army. The Oneida and Tuscarora soldiers proved to be excellent scouts, guides, and skirmishers, and contributed greatly to the campaigns of 1777 and 1778 which culminated in the Continental victory at the Battle of Saratoga. At the Battle of Oriskany in August 1777, the Continental Army and its Oneida soldiers fought a significant force of Loyalist Americans and their Native allies, particularly from the Confederacy’s Mohawk Nation. The other constituent parts of the Six Nations remained aligned with the British, and the Oneida and Tuscarora were forced to devote most of their strength to fending off their former allies in a brutal civil war that left the two nations devastated by the 1780’s. The heavy toll exacted upon the Oneida and Tuscarora for their support of the Patriot cause went beyond military sacrifice. The two nations had paid for victory with their very culture, their ancient way of life evaporating over the long years of war. The weakened Oneida and Tuscarora were unable to withstand the encroachment of New York state authorities on their territories, and their ancestral holdings were swallowed up in the post-war period. In 1794, the U.S. Congress finally made a small gesture of appreciation to their Native allies, agreeing to monetarily compensate the Oneida and Tuscarora for their wartime losses. #Armyhistory #USArmy #TRADOC #MilitaryHistory #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth Posted @withrepost • @armyhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CklJ2L6uH9t/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

28 JULY - NATIONAL BUFFALO SOLDIERS DAY Buffalo soldiers were African American soldiers who mainly served on the Western frontier following the American Civil War. They were originally members of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments formed at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. On September 21, 1866, six all-Black cavalry and infantry regiments were created after Congress passed the Army Organization Act. In #WWII, the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments were mostly disbanded, and the soldiers were moved into service-oriented units. This nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" was given to the Black Cavalry by Native American tribes who fought in the Indian Wars. The term eventually became synonymous with the African-American regiments formed in 1866. #Armyhistory #USArmy #TRADOC #BuffaloSoliders Secretary of the Army U.S. Army U.S. Army Chief of Staff U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) Frontier Army Museum https://www.instagram.com/p/Cgj76N5Ouat/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

From Harlem streets and other New York City neighborhoods they came, members of the only U.S. unit to get "over there" with their old State name -- the 15th New York. These black Soldiers soon found themselves with a new name, the 369th Infantry Regiment. Many months after their arrival in the war zone the 369th Infantry, as part of the French Army’s 161st Division, marched toward a date with destiny in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. On a fateful day, September 29, a regimental historian would later remember, "the day dawned clear and cool. There was expectancy in the air." A fierce artillery barrage preceded the attack by the 369th, nicknamed "Hell Fighters" by the enemy. After a brutal struggle during which heavy casualties were sustained Sechault was taken and the 369th soldiers dug in to consolidate their advance position. The action depicted earned the Croix de Guerre for the entire regiment. But the Meuse-Argonne claimed nearly one-third of these black fighting men as battle casualties. This distinguished National Guard Regiment left its proud mark on the AEF as "the regiment that never lost a man captured, a trench or a foot of ground..." Today’s 369th Transportation Battalion1, New York Army National Guard, carries on the traditions of the gallant "Hell Fighters" of yesterday. - #WWI #Armyhistory #USArmy #TRADOC #onthisdayinhistory #thisdayinarmyhistory #thisdayinblackhistory #thisdayinwwi #repostedfrom @armyhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CUZ2NZig5CN/?utm_medium=tumblr