Black Soldier White Army

B LACK S OLDIER LACK OLDIER / B S W HITE A RMY WHITE ARMY The 24 The 24TH Infantry Regiment in Korea TH Infantry Regiment in Korea William T. Bowers William M. Hammond George L. MacGarrigle Center of Military History United States Army United States Army Center of Military History BLACK SOLDIER WHITE ARMY The 24TH Infantry Regiment in Korea William T. Bowers William M. Hammond George L. MacGarrigle Center of Military History United States Army Washington, D.C., 1996 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bowers, William T., 1946– Black soldier, white army : The 24th Infantry Regiment in Korea / by William T. Bowers, William M. Hammond, George L. MacGarrigle. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Korean War, 1950–1953—Regimental Histories—United States. 2. United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 24th—History. 3. Korean War, 1950–1953—Afro-American participation. 4. United States. Army—Afro-American troops—History. I. Hammond, William M. II. MacGarrigle, George L., 1930– . III. Title. DS919.B68 1996 951.904’2—dc20 93–14052 CIP CMH Pub 70–65 Foreword he story of the 24th Infantry Regiment in Korea ensure that the injustices and misfortunes that is a difficult one, both for the veterans of the befell the 24th never occur again. Tunit and for the Army. In the early weeks of the Six people deserve special acknowledgment for Korean War, most American military units experi- the roles they played in the production of this study. enced problems as the U.S. Army attempted to Secretary of the Army John O. Marsh first recognized transform understrength, ill-equipped, and inade- the need for this work and monitored its early stages. quately trained forces into an effective combat team A concerned veteran, Mr. David Carlisle, pushed while at the same time holding back the fierce continually for its completion. General Roscoe attacks of an aggressive and well-prepared oppo- Robinson, before he passed away, read initial drafts nent. In addition to the problems other regiments of the early chapters and made valuable comments. faced in Korea, the 24th Infantry also had to over- Col. John Cash collected many of the documents, come the effects of racial prejudice. Ultimately the conducted nearly three hundred oral history inter- soldiers of the regiment, despite steadfast courage views, walked the battlegrounds in Korea, and draft- on the part of many, paid the price on the battle- ed an early account of the regiment’s history. The field for the attitudes and misguided policies of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Army and their nation. Reserve Affairs, Hon. Sara E. Lister, supported our Several previously published histories have dis- work during the past two years. The Secretary of the cussed what happened to the 24th Infantry. This Army, Hon. Togo D. West, Jr., approved its publica- book tells why it happened. In doing so, it offers tion. Special thanks is extended to each, as well as to important lessons for today’s Army. The Army and Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Roy Flint, a combat veteran and the nation must be aware of the corrosive effects of scholar who prepared an introduction placing this segregation and the racial prejudices that accompa- study in its larger historical context. We are also grat- nied it. The consequences of that system crippled ified to report that the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, is the trust and mutual confidence so necessary once again serving proudly as part of the 1st Brigade, among the soldiers and leaders of combat units and 25th Infantry Division, at Fort Lewis, Washington. weakened the bonds that held the 24th together, producing profound effects on the battlefield. I Washington, D.C. JOHN W. MOUNTCASTLE urge the reader to study and reflect on the insights 21 August 1996 Brigadier General, USA provided in the chapters that follow. We must Chief of Military History The Authors WILLIAM T. BOWERS received his B.A. and M.A. Vietnam Era; a monograph entitled Normandy, degrees in history from Texas Christian University. released in 1994 by the Army to mark the 50th Commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1969, he anniversary of the invasion; as well as numerous served in Vietnam in the 1st Cavalry Division and shorter articles and publications. He is currently later as an adviser. He has commanded field preparing a volume in the Army’s Cold War series artillery units in the United States and Germany entitled “The Army and National Security: The and has served as a staff officer in the office of the Emergence of the Cold War, 1945–1953.” Dr. Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans in Hammond has taught at Trinity College in Washington, D.C., as well as in the Joint Washington, D.C., and at the University of Headquarters of the Central Army Group and the Maryland, Baltimore County. He currently doubles Fourth Allied Tactical Airforce (NATO) in as a Lecturer in University Honors at the University Heidelberg, Germany. He has taught history at the of Maryland, College Park, where he teaches cours- U.S. Naval Academy and has been a guest lecturer es on the Vietnam War and the military and the at the Army War College and at the NATO School news media in American history. in Oberammergau, Germany. In 1992 he joined the Center of Military History as chief of the Histories GEORGE L. MACGARRIGLE is a graduate of the Division. Having retired from the Army in 1995, he United States Military Academy and has received resides in Burke, Virginia, where he remains active an M.A. in history from Pennsylvania State in the field of military history. University. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1952, he served with the 1st Cavalry Division in WILLIAM M. HAMMOND graduated from the Korea as a rifle company commander and again Catholic University of America, where he earned with the 1st Cavalry Division during the Vietnam the S.T.B., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees. He currently War as an infantry battalion commander. He direct- serves as a historian with the Center of Military ed the military history program while assigned to History, where he has authored a two-volume his- the ROTC at Pennsylvania State University. He cur- tory of official relations with the news media dur- rently serves as a civilian historian with the Center ing the Vietnam War, Public Affairs: The Military and of Military History, where he has authored “The the Media. He has also authored the Army’s history Year of the Offensive” and is working on a second of the selection and interment of the Vietnam volume, “The Tet Offensive,” both of which tell the Unknown Soldier, The Unknown Serviceman of the Army’s story of combat in Vietnam. Preface n late September 1950, two months after the the regiment. In 1987 Secretary of the Army John O. beginning of the Korean War, the commander of Marsh, Jr., directed that the U.S. Army Center of Ithe 25th Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. William B. Military History undertake a definitive evaluation of Kean, requested that the Eighth Army disband the the 24th’s role in the Korean War. If the regiment’s all-black 24th Infantry Regiment because it had performance was commendable, the record could be shown itself “untrustworthy and incapable of car- amended. But if its service was less than successful, rying out missions expected of an infantry regi- the reasons behind its shortcomings ought to be ment.” Thus began a controversy that has contin- examined for the lessons they might convey to the ued to this day. Critics of the racially segregated soldier of today. regiment have charged that the 24th was a dismal Col. John A. Cash began the effort in 1988. failure in combat. The African-American veterans Over the next several years he and several assistants of the organization and others have responded that conducted nearly three hundred oral history inter- the unit did far better than its antagonists would views, visited the battlefields in Korea, researched concede and that its main problem was the racial official records in the National Archives, and com- prejudice endemic to the Army of that day. Military pleted part of an initial draft outline for a final man- historians have tended to cite the lack of training uscript. Cash retired in 1992. Shortly thereafter the and preparation afflicting all of the U.S. Army units Center formed a team of three historians to con- entering combat during the early weeks of the duct additional research and interviews and to Korean War and the inability of senior comman- compose a final study. ders to remedy deficiencies of leadership in the This history is the result. It analyzes the opera- 24th within a reasonable period of time. tions of the 24th Infantry during the Korean War to For a while, with the integration of the armed determine how well the unit and its associated forces, the talk on all sides subsided, but when the engineers and artillery performed. In the process it U.S. Army’s official history of the Korean War, South asks whether deficiencies occurred, seeks their mil- to the Naktong, North to the Yalu, authored by Roy E. itary causes, and looks at how those influences and Appleman, appeared in 1961, it reignited the con- events intersected with the racial prejudices preva- troversy by publicizing the background of Kean’s lent in that day. charges. During the late 1970s, as a result, a number Starting with a brief rendition of the background of individuals began an effort to persuade the Army of the African-American soldier in the nineteenth to revise its history to reflect a more balanced view of and early twentieth centuries, the study shows that vi THE 24TH INFANTRY REGIMENT IN KOREA segregated regiments and divisions performed well involved, the attributes that produce success in com- when called upon during the American Civil War bat are not always discernable.

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