After World War II
Returning soldiers of African-American units (the 761st had been the first of many segregated combat units, including the 92nd Infantry Division and the famous Tuskegee Airmen) often did not receive a warm welcome home as most white units did. Their unequal treatment was a source of much disappointment and discouragement. However, the distinguished service of many black combat units helped convince the government, now under President Harry S. Truman, to finally desegregate the US Armed Forces soon after the war ended.
On 24 November 1947, the 761st was reactivated (as an integrated unit) at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and assigned to the Regular Army, where it served until again deactivated on 15 March 1955.
Read more about this topic: 761st Tank Battalion (United States)
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“Let us, then, take our compass; we are something, and we are not everything. The nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of first beginnings which are born of the nothing; and the littleness of our being conceals from us the sight of the infinite. Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)