WW II Acronyms and Words-- Part 5: Segregated Armed Forces

SEGREGATED ARMED FORCES

The Army was segregated  The soldier giving these said he was in a segregated Army.

The soldiers in the 92nd Infantry Division were Blacks and fought in Italy as part of the 5th Army.  Also serving in Italy were the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an all Nisei unit--  Americans of Japanese descent.

Here and there, depending upon the section of the country and the officers, there were integrated units.

In World War I. Blacks served with the French units.

As far as his military career he said that after training at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, the football team was desegregated.  The troop ships going over were segregated with black troops fore and aft.

In 1946, while at Camp Crowder in Joplin, Missouri, I went to a baseball game in Kansas City.  As I sat in the ballpark, I kept thinking something wasn't kosher.  Finally in the 7th inning stretch, I realized I was in a segregated park.

Back home all our teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants and New York Yankees all played in integrated parks.

--GreGen