This was a company of all Negros (or African Americans/Blacks/whatever hte current PC term is). It was never deployed in WW2 in a fighting role but was used for “fire jumping” where they were used to put out fires in the Western states and recover devices.
The battalion was assigned the mission of the recovery and destruction of Japanese balloon bombs, with the added mission of the suppression of forest fires started by the aforementioned bombs. This mission was to be known to all concerned agencies as, “The Fire-Fly Project,” and as far as the utilization of airborne army personnel was concerned, was of an experimental nature.
from http://www.triplenickle.com/histdata.html
555th Parachute Infantry Battalion
he 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was activated as a result of a recommendation made in December 1942 by the Advisory Committee on Negro Troop Policies, chaired by the Assistant Secretary of War, John J. McCloy. In approving the committee’s recommendation for a black parachute battalion, Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall decided to start with a company, and on 25 February 1943 the 555th Parachute Infantry Company was constituted (placed on the rolls of the Army).
On 19 December 1943, Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, authorized the activation of the company as an all-black unit with black officers as well as black enlisted men. All unit members were to be volunteers, with an enlisted cadre to be selected from personnel of the 92d Infantry Division at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The company was officially activated on 30 December 1943 at Fort Benning, Georgia. After several months of training, the unit moved to Camp Mackall, North Carolina, where it was reorganized and redesignated on 25 November 1944 as Company A of the newly-activated 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion.
The battalion did not serve overseas during World War II. However, in May 1945 it was sent to the west coast of the United States to combat forest fires ignited by Japanese balloons carrying incendiary bombs. Although this potentially serious threat did not materialize, the 555th fought numerous other forest fires. Stationed at Pendleton Field, Oregon, with a detachment in Chico, California, unit members courageously participated in dangerous fire-fighting missions throughout the Pacific Northwest during the summer and fall of 1945, earning the nickname “Smoke Jumpers” in addition to “Triple Nickles.”
Soon after returning to Camp Mackall in October 1945, the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was transferred to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, its home for the next two years. During this period the unit was attached to the elite 82d Airborne Division. When the battalion was inactivated on 15 December 1947, most of its personnel were reassigned to the division’s organic 3d Battalion, 505th Airborne Infantry. On 22 August 1950 the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was disbanded (removed from the rolls of the Army).
From http://www.ww2-airborne.us/18corps/reserve_overview.html
Got admit I have never understood the “all Black” units. I don’t think there was any parrell in the British Army. Yes, we had all Sikh or all Indian or all Gurkha, but these were recruited from our commonwealth countries. From the UK we never raised a “all Black” unit, or anything similar.
It has happened many times in history also…
Following the end of the Civil War, the United States began its great expansion westward. To protect the settlers and to aid in the opening of the west. The Regular Army Cavalry was increased by four regiments. One of those four regiments was the 10th Cavalry, activated at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on July 28, 1866, under the command of Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson.
The 10th was formed as a regiment of Negro Volunteers, composed of freed slaves from the southern states and some veterans of the Civil War. In July 1867, the 10th Cavalry reached full strength and moved to Fort Riley, Kansas, to take up its first duty assignment patrolling the Kansas and Pacific Railroad. Before the year ended, the regiment joined General Phil Sheridan to ride against Black Kettle’s Band of Cheyenne; the most respected tribe of the Plains Indians. During this period, Captain L.H. Carpenter, Commanding Officer of H Troop, won the regiments first Congressional Medal of Honor in a 26 hour fight against an outnumbering enemy force. The 10th Cavalry as a unit was cited for gallantry by General Sheridan.