Dr. John W. Garland
President, Central State University

Dr. Joseph D. Lewis
Professor Emeritus (History)

     Last week, I received an e-mail invitation to attend a History Symposium at Central State University, featuring African American Veterans of World War II. Last night, I had the privilege of hearing these men of history speak.

    I walked into Wesley Hall Auditorium and introduced myself to Dr. Joseph D. Lewis, Emeritus of History, and a Korean War veteran. Dr. Lewis has been instrumental in organizing and moderating many such occasions for African American veterans, and I was pleased to finally meet him face to face. He welcomed me very graciously, for we had shared many e-mails and articles over the past few years. In fact, he thought for a while that I was a black WWII veteran. We both laugh about that. He asked me if I would help with distributing the programs and ‘question cards’ as people entered the auditorium, and also to moderate and read submitted questions to the panel of veterans at the front. I was glad to help out.

    The speakers present were veterans who represented various military occupations during WWII. Dr. Ames W. Chapman spoke about ‘The Red Ball Express.’ Dr. Harry G. Johns spoke of the artillery unit to which he was assigned.  Mr. Charles P. Feaster, a Tuskegee Airman, spoke about his training and missions during ‘Operation Torch’ in North Africa and beyond. Bennie McRae, Jr. has researched and brought to the public eye, along with many statistics, the role and contributions of the African American in the history of the United States. Other special guests were there whose names, I regret to say, I do not recall.  However, I was privileged to meet Dr. Garland, the President of Central State University. Dr. Garland is a Marine and a fellow Vietnam veteran, and we spoke together afterward.

    I learned much in the course of the evening, and I left with a sense of awe and admiration from listening to the experiences and the plight of these men as they overcame the obstacles and the humiliations of a very much segregated and discriminating military at that time. Each member of the panel remembered crossing the ocean below the water level of the ship, seasick from start to finish. That is where the African Americans were assigned to ride.

    Dr. Johns recalled how he had to calculate with a slide-rule, the information radioed from a forward observer. He was proud to say that his unit never miscalculated and fired on their fellow soldiers.

    Dr. Chapman related how his unit had trained very hard for the infantry as potential replacements and looked forward to being able to participate as an infantry soldier, but the military had never intended to place them there. They were assigned as ordinance men and supply truck drivers. As it happened, this turned out to be a critical and demanding position, as the Army units were progressing so speedily across France and Belgium. This trucking supply was to become known as ‘The Red Ball Express.’ I learned from Dr. Chapman that the term, “to red ball it”, was an old railroad term that simply meant, ‘to ship by express.’

    Charles Feaster expressed his affection for the P-40’s and the P-51’s, which he flew at various times during the war. He also expressed much admiration to the front line men on the ground, but I personally consider his missions in the air as front line duty and as hazardous as any man’s.

    There is so much more that was said last evening. Dr. Lewis spoke eloquently, as did Bennie McRae, Jr. There was much information shared and personal experiences recalled. Dr. Garland mentioned at the close of the meeting of the increased sensitivity and appreciation that he and many veterans experienced, as a result of being in a war: a sensitivity and appreciation for life and for the caring and support of each other as fellow human beings.

    There were times that my eyes softened as I listened to the trials these men had to overcome just to be an American defender, and then to return home to the same segregated and discriminatory practices that they had left behind. These same men, however, paved the way and opened the doors for the next generation to go even further in the fervent hope that one day the words of Thomas Jefferson will ring just as true for every American: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

    We cannot help but admire what these men did, to sacrifice and to press on, in spite of the attempt to limit and contain them, in spite of the ridicule and resentment, so that they could serve their country, make their families proud, and prove their worth in society.  I was honored to shake their hands. 

Randy Ark