Word: 369th
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Some of the best U.S. soldiers in 1917-18 were black troops. The famed 15th Infantry (now the 369th Coast Artillery) from Harlem stayed longer under fire (191 days) than any other regiment, yielded no prisoners, gave up no ground, suffered casualties of 40%. Negro veterans still grin delightedly when they recall the "Battle of Henry Johnson," in which a pint-size onetime Red Cap from Albany, N.Y. killed, wounded and routed a party of 25 Germans singlehanded...
...band which speaks for itself with the most authority is one at Fort Ontario, in Oswego, N. Y. There the 369th anti-aircraft regiment, a Negro National Guard unit from Harlem, is having a year's training. The men of the 369th get more from their band than most regiments do. Almost every night they hear a jam session, almost hot enough to melt the icicles on the recreation barracks. The band's leaders are Sergeant Reuben B. Reeves and Private Otis Johnson-onetime trumpeters in Cab Galloway's and Don Redman's orchestras...
Bandmaster of the 369th for more than four years has been Russell Wooding, onetime Broadway arranger and conductor, onetime bandmaster for the New York Giants football team. Bandmaster Wooding works his men hard, says: "All of us realize that we have a great tradition to uphold." That tradition was begun in World War I, when the 369th was the crack 15th New York Infantry and its bandmaster was the late James Reese Europe...
...same outfits on an equality basis, they reckoned on a thumping overturn of precedent. Only four Negroes have ever graduated from West Point (none from Annapolis) and today the Army has only two regular Negro line officers: Colonel Benjamin Oliver Davis, commanding officer of Harlem's 369th Coast Artillery (National Guard), and his West Pointer son, Lieut. B. O. Davis Jr., military instructor at Tuskegee Institute. Before 1940's emergency the Army had only four Negro regiments of regulars (two cavalry, two infantry); all are officered by white men. Since July 1, 17 other Negro outfits have been...
...World War I, only 10% of the 404,000 Negroes drafted and enlisted for the Army saw service in overseas combat outfits. Except for a few separate regiments (like the 369th 376th 371st and 372nd). their record was undistinguished. Some Army men today think Negroes are as good fighting men as whites, but also think they will never be able to prove it until they go into action led by Negro officers, show once & for all that they do not need white leadership...