Category: African American Veterans

Austin retired from the Army in 2016, and he would need a congressional waiver of the legal requirement that a former member of the military be out of uniform at least seven years before serving as secretary of defense.   — AP, CNBC President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired four-star Army general Lloyd J. Austin […]

Racial strife aboard a Navy ship left three men facing the threat of the death penalty. They became little more than statistics in the military’s dismal record of race relations in the Vietnam era. By John Ismay, The New York Times Magazine One evening in late August 1972, as the American tank-landing ship U.S.S. Sumter […]

The achievement was celebrated by celebrities and politicians. By Kiara Brantley-Jones, ABC News The U.S. Navy celebrated a historic moment this week as it announced Lt. j.g. Madeline Swegle was set to become its first Black female tactical fighter pilot. Swegle has earned her wings as a U.S. Navy fighter pilot and will receive her […]

In 1942, a group of African American sailors were chosen to integrate the Naval Officer Corps, forever changing what was possible in the U.S. Navy. Sam Barnes racked his brain one chilly morning in January 1944, wondering what he might have done wrong. Barnes, a popular African American petty officer working at Great Lakes Naval […]