Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Integrating the 82nd Field Artillery Battalion – Korean War Memories

By Francis Graves

In 1951 I was commanding A Battery of the 82nd FA Bn. One morning my Battalion Commander called me on our battalion telephone net.
“Graves,” he said. “We are about to receive black soldiers as replacements. You are my only battery commander who is not from the South. Will you take the first ones?”

“Of course, Sir. I’d be happy to.”

That is how our all-white battalion first integrated.*
As I recall we received five black soldiers, a sergeant, a corporal and three privates initially. The sergeant was a graduate of Texas Tech, a quiet well qualified non-com who was immediately assigned to fill a vacancy as Chief of Detail (the battery survey and fire direction team) and he took charge immediately of all his white subordinates and did an excellent job. A perfect fit.

The corporal whose name was Nelson was a small cocky man from Chicago with an aggressive personality. He had been what he called an ‘ambulance chaser’ working for lawyers in the Windy City. It took a month or so for our veteran soldiers to accept him because of his cockiness. He had several altercations with the old timers. He finally became accepted when he challenged anyone to a boxing match. He proved to be an excellent boxer and he beat several challengers bigger than him. He soon gained respect and became a popular among the men.
Unfortunately, we lost the other three. They had infantry MOS’s (Military Occupational Specialty) and were transferred out of the artillery. While we had them they proved to be excellent hardworking men who had made positive contributions in the battery.

I have always been quietly proud of those men and the part I had to play in the integration of the 82nd Field Artillery Battalion, which was the general support battalion of the 1st Cavalry Division.**

*The armed forces officially integrated as of 1948, but it was not until two years later the units in Korea began receiving black soldiers.

**The battalion was armed with 155mm Howitzers rowed by high speed tractors.

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