11 Comments

Thank you for your service 🙏

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We disagree about much but I deeply commend your willingness to immerse yourself in the largely thankless task of preserving and passing on some important information about Afro-American contributions in World War Two.

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This was also interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_Lee?wprov=sfti1

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Indeed it is interesting. Professor Lee was obviously well qualified to write “The Employment of Negro Troops”—which I read some time ago with great interest.

All this reminds me of another Substack article of mine that touches on the subject of black Americans’ World War Two service:

https://unwokeindianaag.substack.com/p/remembering-mr-charles?utm_source=publication-search

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Wow! Not only creatively merciful but far more impactful than any regular paper would have been. That story deserves a broader audience. (I’m not “woke” either, just a slightly updated “Moynihan Democrat.” There are many worse things to be.)

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Thank you.

The official history series, “The U.S. Army in World War II,” includes a Special Study, “The Employment of Negro Troops,” that was first published in 1951. It’s currently available as a free downloadable PDF on the U.S. Army Center for Military History website:

https://www.history.army.mil/html/books/011/11-4/index.html

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I will save and share this. Again, thank you for taking the time to pursue this topic in such a serious way. My father was one of the very early black marines (1944-1946) and I suppose I may owe my very existence to the deployment of Little Boy and Fat Man.

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It’s interesting that you say this. My father served in the Coast Guard during the war, first on Atlantic convoy escort duty and later on a troop transport that among other things carried 15,000 troops of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force from Rio de Janeiro to Italy. Shortly after VE Day, his ship was decommissioned and most of its crew was sent to San Diego for training as landing craft crewman for the projected invasion of Japan. Needless to say, Dad had no problem with those mushroom clouds. Nor do I…

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I know. It had to be done. But I always regret the women and kids who get nailed as collateral damage. (When I suggested that Hamas could save Palestinian women and kids simply by surrendering to Israel my “woke” friends simply refused to respond. 🙁)

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You’re a terrific writer Thomas👍

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Thank you—not only for this comment but for reading.

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