Segregation during World War II was at its lowest point in history, but one group called the Triple Nickles worked through it and became highly tuned fighting machines, never getting to show their worth in the front lines of the war. The African Americans of the 555th trained the same if not more than the regular caucasian paratrooper. Due to segregation of the time period all African Americans were treated worse than prisoners. Then they got a break, and felt their calling as smokejumpers out in the Western United States.
Yet after countless jumps and many fires stopped, World War II was over, and they had to go back to the previous conditions in the miltary bases, of being segregated. Welcome to the military, African-Americans where there is no shortage of segregation. Walter Morris is named the first Sergeant, in charge of the service company of TPS (Stone & Bryan, 2013). Paratroopers have only been training three years prior at Fort Benning, Georgia (Stone & Bryan, 2013). Service Company, all blacks, were in charge of guard and common assistance, like sweeping, mopping, dusting, etc, their hours were 4pm-8am (Stone & Bryan, 2013).
Morris thought they were never treated right, spirit, and moral is down because of this. Segregation is at its lowest point in history. Ulysses Lee bad talks black soldiers in his book, The Employment of Negro Troops (Stone & Bryan, 2013). In 1940 500,000 soldiers serving in the Army, only 4,000 said to be African-American. NAACP asked constantly for help with joining forces of whites and colored people but were constantly refused. Created an Amendment on draftees being selected at random (Stone & Bryan, 2013).
Congress did not believe all in this because they thought that it would cause more fighting and harm, than good (Stone & Bryan, 2013). The unwanted future Triple Nickles started training. Fall of 1943 black soldiers started training (“History of The Triple Nickles”, 2008). They got through the paces of pushups, situps, jumping jacks, and running (Stone & Bryan, 2013). First jump routine is off of a five foot platform to learn to land correctly (Stone & Bryan, 2013). The black soldiers morale was up, hair was cut and combed, shoes shined, clothes pressed, and looked at people with confidence and stared them in the eye.
Morris (officer) gets called into general Ridgely Gaithers office, Morris states he is very nervous (Stone & Bryan, 2013). Black soldiers were treated as second class. Morris rides his bike to the General’s office, he is told that they are going to start up a parachute infantry called the 555th (Stone & Bryan, 2013). Roosevelt is in election phase of president around October 9,1940 (Stone & Bryan, 2013). Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Jr. , highest ranking black officer, was promoted to Brigadier General, first black man to hold that title (History of the Triple Nickles, 2008).
Hastic continued to persuade war department on behalf of black soldiers. First group of black aviators to be trained. First group of black aviators to be trained were the Tuskegee Airmen, or the 99th (555th Parachute Infantry, 2014). At Least 1,000 black pilots had been trained by the spring of 1943 (Stone & Bryan, 2013). Black pilots finally sent overseas on April 15, 1943, flying more than 1,500 missions in WWII, without losing a single man (Stone & Bryan, 2013). Air Corps realized that they could produce stellar black pilots, so they started thinking about stellar black paratroopers.
Colored soldiers began to make some headway, and started training. In January of 1944, back at Fort Benning, training began (Stone & Bryan, 2013). 20 black soldiers were about to go through the program, they were joined by 17 others from the 92nd, who had already been through infantry training (Stone & Bryan, 2013). They became triple Nickles in honor of the 92nd “Buffalo Soldiers” since their hair resembled that of a buffalo (Stone & Bryan, 2013). Bradley Biggs, 22, already served as lieutenant in the 92nd, first black officer, (Stone & Bryan, 2013).
Stage two is a combination of learning and physical work. The men learn how to use their parachutes, modeled after the emergency parachute pilots used to evacuate in aircraft malfunction (Stone & Bryan, 2013). Stage B, also brought the first real jump from 34 ft (Stone & Bryan, 2013) The parachute did not open on the first jump, but instead the harness was hooked to a zipline. The tower was nicknamed the Great Separator (Stone & Bryan, 2013). Only one of the original 20 guys found themselves not able to jump (Stone & Bryan, 2013). Stage three, the higher the jump the more stress on the body and mind.
The 555th are moving up from a 34 ft tower to a 250 ft controlled descent tower (Stone & Bryan, 2013). The 250 ft controlled descent tower harassed the jumpman into an already open parachute (Stone & Bryan, 2013). The prepping runs give the jumper a more sensible feeling to the height and force strained on the body during jumping. Next is the 250 ft free tower, where the jumper has full control and direction of the parachute. Instructors hollered out directions like “feet and knees together, elbows locked, turn left” (Stone & Bryan, 2013).
The 555th heard about rumors that they would never jump. The reality of discrimination and racism wasn’t too far away from where it started, blacks were still forced away from white sections. “Soldiers were fighting the world’s worst racist, Adolph Hitler, in the world’s most segregated army” (Stephen Ambrose, n. d. ). In 1942 white MP, military police, in Alexandria, LA beat a black soldier. When other black military members joined, white citizens decided to join too, resulting in a full scale riot (Stone, 2013). Morris experienced German and Italian P.
O. W. ’s, prisoners of war, sitting with the white soldiers at their table talking and buying cigarettes at the Post Exchange, but yet blacks had to sit at a different table and use a different store. The 555th finally got transformed from a small company to a Battalion. The 555th received the orders to increase their size from a company of 62-140 soldiers, to a battalion with 300-1,000 soldiers (Stone, 2013). On February 18, 1944, sixteen soldiers made history by becoming the first African American paratroopers (Stone, 2013).
Robinson’s dying mother caused him to leave, but when he returned he had to finish schooling in an all white class, which he said was a very bad experience. Weeks later Robinson got his wings, which were earned by completing 4 day jumps, and 1 night jump (Stone, 2013). The 555th were faced with plans to fight with Hitler. After all their hard work the paratrooper’s training was almost over (Stone, 2013). The 555th was one of the finest group of soldiers many people had ever seen (Stone, 2013).
Consisting of 5,000 ships, 150,000 men, 30,000 vehicles, and 13,000 paratroopers, the 555th was one of the most amphibious assault troops (Stone, 2013). Along with the 555th the 761st tank battalion was another all black battalion that was originally an “experimental unit” (Stone, 2013). The 555th came to find themselves with no orders. After the Battle of the Bulge was over orders never came for the 555th. After the Battle of the Bulge was over sowas the military towards integration. Instead of fighting the 555th were ordered once again for more specialized training, which also happened to the 92nd and the 93rd (Stone, 2013).
In April of 1945 they got another order to be sent, but at this time in the war Europe was winding down (Stone, 2013). While at train stops for supplies some of the black soldiers encountered white loggers. The white loggers who were expecting the black soldiers, told them they were going to fight forest fires as smokejumpers. Black soldiers from the 555th troop became smokejumpers instead of paratroopers out West. Paratroopers learned that smokejumpers are firefighters who parachute to the site of a forest fire. In 1939, the soldiers began training and trying smokejumping (Stone, 2013).
The fires the smokejumpers were fighting were not from accidental fires or lightning strikes, but the fires were from the Japanese (Stone, 2013). A family found a balloon with a bomb attached while on a picnic, they accidentally touched the bomb which then went off becoming of the best kept secrets of WWII (Stone, 2013). The family was sworn to secrecy and the radio ignored the subject. As the Triple Nickles finished training, their hope for finally being used were high. The 555th were noted for being able to walk up hills like cats (Stone, 2013).
Some of the requirements included being able to climb, being able to use an axe, and knowing which vegetation you could eat (Stone, 2013). The troop used new parachutes invented by Frank Derry, which now had steering enabling troopers to avoid trees (Stone, 2013). The only thing keeping branches from smacking them were football helmets with mesh over the front, which they had recently began using instead of their old steel helmets (Stone, 2013). Wreaking of smoke, the 555th did what they had to do to put out fires. Even after all the training and preparing they had already completed, they had to endure more for smokejumping.
The troop was split into two groups, some went to Pendleton, Oregon, while the others were sent to Chico, California (Stone, 2013). While the majority of the troop was trained for firefighting and smokejumping, some were trained to dismantle bombs like Walden and Biggs (Stone, 2013). In July the Triple Nickles were considered the U. S. Army’s only smokejumpers (History of the Triple Nickles, 2008). The 555th soon realized they still had no place in society. After all they had done they still weren’t accepted as equal citizens (Stone, 2013).
When Triple Nickles met the original smoke jumpers, they learned many good tips and strategies they would use. The 555th was accepted by some Navy officers and eventually served their first mission in helping pilots learn how to jump (Stone, 2013). Members of the 555th were the first black paratroopers to serve with the U. S. Navy (Stone, 2013). Even though they were growing, Biggs feared that this was the closest they were every going to get combat. The members could sadly feel their great run starting to come to an end. Triple Nickles only suffered one casualty, Malvin L. Brown, in the line of duty during WWII (Stone, 2013).
Between July and October of 1945 the 555th made over 1,200 jumps and helped control over 36 fires (Stone, 2013). On January 12, 1946, 12,ooo paratroopers of the 82nd airborne walked down New York City’s fifth avenue for a victory parade for the end of WWII (Stone, 2013). All of the Triple Nickles, nearly 350, were able to walk beside the 82nd airborne. The African American’s in the crowd were said to be ecstatic (Stone, 2013). The men of the Triple Nickel’s dreaded their final line. WWII was over, but the 555th were still fighting fires until October of 1945, when operation firefly came to an end (Stone, 2013).
But once again the housing was horrid, bathrooms were worse, and the pool was practically a mud puddle. The 555th was transferred to Fort Bragg in Georgia and were attached to 82nd airborne division (U. S. Army Center of Military History, 2014). The battalion was inactivated on December 15, 1947, and most personnel were reassigned to the division’s organic 3d battalion, the 505th Airborne infantry (U. S. Army Center of Military History, 2014). On August 22, 1950 the 555th Parachute infantry battalion was disbanded. (U. S. Army Center of Military History, 2014). By the end of their time the 555th parachute infantry had become well known.
They helped change the course of segregation and showed white people that the only difference between them and African Americans is the color of their skin. Their physical ability is is equal if not better on certain physical activities. One thing they did not get to do is show how highly trained they were, on the front lines. They were always in the back fighting forest fires, cleaning, or training after the hours when the white soldiers trained. Segregation was at its worst point in history but the Triple Nickles worked through it and helped fight World War II.