Posted on 02/12/2021 11:50:11 AM PST by nickcarraway
“That was such a glaring error."
The U.S. Army has given the official go-ahead for a National Guard unit to bear a name its forebears earned in the trenches of World War I: the Harlem Hellfighters.
The Army Center of Military History approved the “Harlem Hellfighters” as the official designation for the 369th Sustainment Brigade of the New York Army National Guard on Sept. 21, 2020, according to a Guard press release.
The quest to make the moniker official began in 2019 at the New York State Military Museum, when Courtney Burns, the museum director, was looking through the Army’s list of unit special designations and found that, despite the name’s widespread use, it did not appear on official records.
“That was such a glaring error,” he said.
The realization set Burns on a mission to see the name officially bestowed to the unit, and so he contacted Seth Morgulas, the commander of the 369th Sustainment Brigade — the modern-day successors to World War I’s Harlem Hellfighters — to let him know that the name was not officially recognized, despite its widespread use.
“I said, “That is crazy, how does it not have it, ’ Morgulas recalled.
More than a century after World War I, the Harlem Hellfighters’ nickname is finally official In this National Guard historic painting by H. Charles McBarron, Soldiers of the 369th Infantry Regiment, the Harlem Hellfighters, go into action near Sechault, France, on September 29, 1918 during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. (National Guard photo) The 369th Sustainment Brigade is descended from the 369th Infantry Regiment, which was originally known as the 15th Infantry Regiment. The unit’s legacy was forged during an era of legalized racism, and its soldiers’ heroism and endurance in the face of violence on a scale never-before-seen, ensured that the reputation of the Harlem Hellfighters endured for generations — and now, its name does, too.
In 1917, at the outset of America’s involvement in World War I, Black Americans traveled to New York to volunteer to serve in the all-Black 15th Infantry Regiment, which was based out of Harlem, New York.
Even after shipping out to Europe, the 15th Regiment’s wartime service was defined by race: Newly arrived at the Western Front in 1917, the Regiment was placed on work details, unloading supplies, and doing manual labor; its soldiers were given second-hand, sometimes barely functioning, equipment, and many Black soldiers were greeted with hostility and distrust by their white peers.
But with new fronts opening up, and combat taking its toll, the 15th Infantry Regiment was renamed the 369th Infantry Regiment and placed under command of the French Army.
There on the Western Front, wearing French uniforms and firing French rifles, the Hellfighters took orders from French commanders, lived alongside French soldiers, and fought bravely during 191 consecutive days in combat. The men of the 369th endured enemy fire, mustard gas, trench foot, and extreme hardship as they suffered more casualties than any other American unit during the war. Their service resulted in a slew of awards, from the French Croix de Guerre to multiple Distinguished Service Crosses, and, eventually, one of their own was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
When they returned home, the men of the 369th were celebrated on the streets of New York, and headlines across the country applauded the service of the “Harlem Hellfighters.” And though the gratitude heaped upon them was short-lived, the name lingered, but it would be decades before it was formally bestowed to the unit.
And though it took more than a century, the Harlem Hellfighters are now, officially, the Harlem Hellfighters.
OMG, impeach them, they’re insurrectionists...;-P
Very cool.
Better way way late than not at all, one would suppose.
I wonder if the game ‘Battlefield 1’ had anything to do with this.
They are going to FIGHT LIKE HELL! Pave over their graves so they don’t rise up from the dead, and afterwards voting democrap, use their Zombie Fight Like Hell skills to take over the capital!
Holy crap. Bottom left. Is that Eddie Murphy?
Outstanding!
In those days 90% of Blacks were Republicans ....
God bless those heroes. What stories they could tell. But the medals they earned say a lot. I imagine anyone who survived WWI trench warfare was changed and scarred by the experience.
Quite possible. I liked BF1.
Well-deserved honor for those men. The French had tremendous respect for them as well as for the US Marine regiments that fought alongside them.
}:-)4
It was a great game, and gloriously retold a war that many had forgotten.
The one at the top right looks Italian. He looks like he could pass.
The French had African troops in the trenches in World War I.
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