Awaiting Orders
Tank crews from the 761st Tank Battalion await orders to clean out scattered Nazi machine gun nests in Coburg, Germany, April 25, 1945. The 761st Tank Battalion was the first African-American tank battalion to go into battle, and spent 183 continuous days in combat. The unit earned four campaign medals, 11 Silver Stars, 69 Bronze Stars and about 300 Purple Hearts. A Medal of Honor and a Presidential Unit Citation came later. (Photo: National Archives)
Tank crews from the 761st Tank Battalion await orders to clean out scattered Nazi machine gun nests in Coburg, Germany, April 25, 1945. The 761st Tank Battalion was the first African-American tank battalion to go into battle, and spent 183 continuous days in combat. The unit earned four campaign medals, 11 Silver Stars, 69 Bronze Stars and about 300 Purple Hearts. A Medal of Honor and a Presidential Unit Citation came later. (Photo: National Archives)
« Previous Image | Full-Size Image |
Main Gallery Page
| Next Image »
Other Images in this Gallery
-
-
Facsimile of the Marquis de Lafayette’s original certificate commending James Armistead Lafayette’s service on behalf of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, dated Nov. 21, 1784. He served as a double agent, and provided the Continental Army invaluable intelligence throughout the war. (Photo Credit: Schomburg Center for Research in Black CultureManuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division)
-
-
In 1866, Cathay Williams became the first African-American woman to enlist in the U.S. Army. She posed as a man, enlisting under the pseudonym William Cathay.
-
-
In 1889, Charles Young became the third African American to graduate and receive a commission as a second lieutenant from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1889 — the last to do so until Benjamin O. Davis Jr. in 1936, and the first to advance to the rank of colonel in the regular Army. (Photo: U.S. Army)
-
-
The 369th Infantry Regiment served on the front lines for 191 days during World War I, longer than any other American unit. In that time, the Soldiers of the regiment, known as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” never gave up any ground it captured. (Photo: National Archives)
-
-
Brigadier Ben. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. became the U.S. Army’s first African-American general officer in 1940. (Photo: U.S. Army)
-
-
Tank crews from the 761st Tank Battalion await orders to clean out scattered Nazi machine gun nests in Coburg, Germany, April 25, 1945. The 761st Tank Battalion was the first African-American tank battalion to go into battle, and spent 183 continuous days in combat. The unit earned four campaign medals, 11 Silver Stars, 69 Bronze Stars and about 300 Purple Hearts. A Medal of Honor and a Presidential Unit Citation came later. (Photo: National Archives)
-
-
Paratroopers of the U.S. Army’s 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion stand at ease during inspection. The men were issued “let-down” ropes and football helmets with face masks to assist during forest landings while detailed to the U.S. Forest Service, where they served as “smokejumpers” at the end of World War II. (Photo: U.S. Army)
-
-
Cpl. Alyce Dixon (right) poses with other members of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion during World War II. The only African-American WomenÕs Army Corps unit to serve in Europe during World War II, the battalion was responsible for clearing a massive backlog of mail in first England and then France. Viewing their jobs as crucial to morale at the front, Soldiers processed some 65,000 pieces of mail per shift and worked three shifts a day. At the same time, they faced constant prejudice and broke gender and racial barriers. (Photo: the late Alyce Dixon)
-
-
The Korean War was both the last armed conflict to see segregated units, and the first since the Revolutionary War to see African-American and white Soldiers fighting side by side in the same units. Photo: U.S. Army)
-
-
Then-Spc. 4th Class Fred Moore faces the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during his relief walk, 1961. Moore was the first African-American Soldier to “walk the mat” at the Tomb. (Photo: Fred Moore)
-
-
Of the 21 Americans who earned the Medal of Honor for their actions during the Vietnam War, 16 were Soldiers and 10 would make the ultimate sacrifice.
