Military Officer - February 2006 - (Page 64) N service. He did not speak of his unit. He kept his memories to himself. Nearly 40 years after the Floyd Dade war, Burwell, then a high school senior, read about World War II in a prominent news magazine for a school assignment. The article said blacks had served only in support roles, for the most part, and the few who saw combat had received extra training to do so. She thought it odd and asked her father. Dade was stunned. After all, the 761st had been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation in 1978 for its astounding World War II combat record. Surely by now everyone knew blacks had fought (with distinction!) in the war. He told his daughter of his service. She was surprised; this was the first she had heard of it. Dade dug out a worn copy of Come Out Fighting, the book by war correspondent Trezzvant Anderson, who had been embedded with the 761st. The 761st Tank Battalion, or Black Panthers as they later called themselves, was the first black armor unit to see combat. It fought across Europe, participating in four major Allied campaigns. For much of its time at the front, the 761st spearheaded portions of Third Army commander 64 MILITARY OFFICER FEBRUARY 2006 I NE T E E N-YE A R-OLD FLOYD DA D E arrived at the 761st Tank Battalion in early 1944. He trained with the Panthers, went to war, fought his way across Europe, and came home like so many other soldiers. He served his country proudly. ✪ As far as his daughter, Shauna Burwell, knew, Dade did not speak of his war, the prevailing belief was that blacks were simply inferior to white combat soldiers; they were thus relegated to important, though unskilled, support roles such as construction. One prominent and rare exception to those holding this belief was Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair, chief of Army Ground Forces. To him it seemed foolish to eliminate an entire source of badly needed manpower. He was not alone. A new generation of black leaders and emerging civil rights organizations were leading the fight for racial justice during the 1930s. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the black press, and the NAACP, to Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr.’s advance toward Germany. Enemy strongholds crumbled because of the Panthers’ tenacity and deadly onslaught. Ultimately, they smashed through Germany’s Siegfried Line. A segregated army The extraordinary success of the 761st came down to its men and its leaders, black and white, and the great confidence those leaders had in their soldiers. Not even a world war could loosen the grip segregation had on the United States and its military forces. Before the United States entered the PHOTOS: PREVIOUS SPREAD, U.S. ARMY PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PATTON MUSEUM; TOP, COURTESY DADE FAMILY; ABOVE, NATIONAL ARCHIVES
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