Color Us Connected: Honoring America's diverse military veterans

This column appears every other week in Foster’s Daily Democrat and the Tuskegee News. Given that this is mostly what the world is focused on right now, Guy Trammell, an African American man from Tuskegee, Ala., and Amy Miller, a white woman from South Berwick, Maine, write about veterans.

Guy Trammell, Jr.

Crispus Attucks, a Black man, was the first person killed in the Revolutionary War. Even so, Gen. George Washington promised to lead a “white only” army − until he saw a wave of white desertions and Blacks fighting bravely, then re-enlisting. In 1781, James Armistead, a Black U.S. spy, delivered intel to win the Battle of Yorktown, ending the Revolutionary War. Even so, Armistead was denied his freedom until French commander Marquis de Lafayette stood up for him.

At Fort Pillow, Tenn., future Ku Klux Klan leader Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forest slaughtered 300 Black Union prisoners of war. Blacks, paid less, disrespected, and sent into suicidal missions, fought valiantly for the U.S. from its beginning.

Hon. James H. Alston, Tuskegee’s Black legislator during Reconstruction, served in the Spanish American War. On July 1, 1898, the 10th Cavalry (former Buffalo Soldiers) rescued Theodore Roosevelt’s "Rough Riders” at Cuba’s San Juan Hill under heavy Spanish fire, “firing as they marched.” Witnesses reported that “their aim was splendid, their coolness was superb.” Rough Riders reported, “If it hadn’t been for the Black cavalry, the Rough Riders would have been eliminated.”

Harvard’s Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright, serving as U.S. Army Officers Reserve Corps medical unit's Black first lieutenant in World War 1, developed the injection method administering small pox vaccine.

Tuskegee’s ROTC instructor Benjamin O. Davis Sr. served in the Spanish American War and World Wars 1 and 2, becoming the first Black brigadier general. His son Benjamin O. Davis Jr. became the first Black 2-star and 3-star general, and the first Black Air Force general. His student, Daniel “Chappie” James, serving in World War 2, Korea and Vietnam, was the first Black 4-star general. Tuskegee historian Jimmy Johnson was the first Black serving on a nuclear submarine.

The Tuskegee Airmen, the most educated unit in U.S. military history, included women as mechanics, nurses, parachute riggers, and dietitians. In 1943, Black pilots attempted to be served in Tuskegee Army Airfield’s all white Officers Club. Base commander Maj. Noel Parish immediately ordered the Officer’s Club integrated.

In April 1945 Tuskegee Airmen stationed at Freedman’s Field in Indiana were court marshaled for not agreeing to use a “colored only” officer’s club. This initiated President Harry Truman’s Executive Order 9981 integrating the military, and was used by Thurgood Marshall in Brown v. Board of Education, integrating the rest of the country.

Black female soldiers still face discrimination as they serve their country. We honor, love and appreciate our veterans and those currently in military service.

By Amy Miller

“The veterans of our military services have put their lives on the line to protect the freedoms that we enjoy. They have dedicated their lives to their country and deserve to be recognized for their commitment."

Former New Hampshire Gov. Judd Gregg is widely quoted for this statement few of us would refute. Thanking veterans for their service is about as non-partisan as it gets these days. But as we thank veterans, we don’t always remember the basic American values, the freedoms, we ask our military to protect.

Let us remember the national promise, not always fulfilled, that we all have the right to choose our leaders; that we all have the right to speak our beliefs freely; and that we all have the right to pray as we wish, or not at all.

Sometimes, as we honor our soldiers, we focus more on our national might than on these core ideals.

Both at Memorial Day ceremonies in my town, and at a welcome back gathering for soldiers arriving at a nearby air base, I’ve seen leaders offer prayers that assume everyone is worshipping the same god.

Men and women returning from Iraq come from a variety of spiritual beliefs. Whether Muslim, Jewish or Christian, whether agnostic, atheist or from any of dozens of other religions, they are citizens who go to war for our nation. To greet these soliders who, as Gregg said, “put their lives on the line to protect the freedoms we enjoy” — including the right to worship as one chooses — with a prayer that does not represent them is oblivious at best, if not insulting and disingenuous.

In 1994, the military named its first Muslim chaplain. Hindu and Buddhist chaplains came in 2004 and 2011. In 2017, the Department of Defense listed more than 200 denominations and religious groups among its ranks. In doing so, the government recognized that unity does not depend on uniformity.

It has been 75 years since the military was de-segregated, since the Tuskegee Airmen played a pivotal role in the story of World War II. It took many more years before the rest of society was integrated, at least by law.

When we treat every soldier as if he or she is of one mind, one culture, or one religion, we continue that myth through a different filter that says some of them, some of us, are lesser citizens.

Amy and Guy can be reached at colorusconnected@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Color Us Connected: Honoring America's diverse military veterans