Lt. Gen. Nadja West has amassed several milestones in her 33-year Army career. She was sworn in last week as the first Black U.S. Army Surgeon General, and owns the distinction of being the highest-ranking woman ever to graduate from the West Point military academy. Born in 1961, the Washington, D.C. native graduated from West […]
Jeanine Menze, also known as Jeanine McIntosh-Menze, is the first Black woman to become a pilot for the United States Coast Guard military branch. Lieutenant Menze is just one of two Black women pilots in the entire Coast Guard. Menze was born in Kingston, Jamaica and moved with her family to Canada before they […]
A member of the U.S. Air Force is responsible for the shooting of two people in a Wal-Mart in Grand Forks, North Dakota, police say. Grand Forks Herald reports: A 21-year-old airman has been identified as the shooter early this morning at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in south Grand Forks. Marcell Willis was on active duty […]
The involvement of Black soldiers in the American Civil War is common knowledge to many, with troops fighting for both the Union and Confederate forces. What might not be known to some is that Black troops in support of the Union Army fought on the front lines in some of the Civil War’s most […]
The prestigious grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point, better known simply as West Point, recently honored one of its most accomplished, if controversial, graduates by naming a cadet barracks after him. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. was the school’s first Black cadet in the 20th Century, and though he faced a […]
General Daniel James Jr. was the first four-star general of the United States Air Force. Although he nearly didn’t get the opportunity to serve his country, General James flew in a pair of wars and won several decorations before his historic moment. James was born February 11, 1920 in Pensacola, Fla. After graduating high […]
The efforts of Robert Smalls, an enslaved Black man who became a ship’s captain during the American Civil War and later a politician, were recognized by the U.S. Army a decade ago. Smalls and a crew of fellow slaves took over a Confederate ship, where he sailed to freedom by surrendering to Union Army forces […]
Want to go natural? Then don’t plan on joining the U.S. Army. Outrage has followed a new Army mandate that prohibits hairstyles commonly identified with African-American hairstyles, including Afros, locs and twists. Identified as “Army Regulation 670-1,” the rule calls for a ban of hairstyles done in “twists, dreadlocks, afros and braids more than a […]
On June 11, 1964, only eight days after the Civil Rights Act had passed, three black men, soldiers and teachers at the U.S. Army Reserves, headed home from training at Fort Benning, near Columbus, GA. Lt. Colonel Lemuel Penn, Major Charles Brown and Lt. Colonel John Howard were driving down a lonely road in Athens, […]
On December 20, 2013, the Senate confirmed African American Vice Admiral Michelle Howard as the U.S. Navy’s first ever female four-star admiral. Howard is not only the first woman but the first black person to be named the Navy’s new Vice Chief of Naval Operations. Vice Admiral Howard began making history in 1999 when she […]
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Army Sgt. 1st Class Joseph E. Gantt went off to war 63 years ago, leaving behind a wife who never gave up on his return. On Friday, 94-year-old Clara Gantt stood up from her wheelchair and wept in the cold before the flag-draped casket. Sgt. Gantt was finally home. “He told […]
General Colin Powell has achieved well beyond his distinguished 35 years in the military. Not only was he the first Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first Black Secretary of State, he was at one point a legitimate Republican political candidate. Powell is part of the proud history of Black veterans […]
