When Executive Order 9981 was signed, the Army had 300 segregated units. Eliminating all of them and integrating their ranks wasn’t completed until October 1954. About a hundred units serving in Korea contained African-American troops. Among them was the segregated 24th Infantry Regiment, a Buffalo Soldiers regiment organized in 1869. Its experience in the war remains controversial to this day. Stationed in Japan as part of the Eighth Army garrison force, like other units there it was hastily thrown into action against the trained, well-led North Korean army.
Among them was the segregated 24th Infantry Regiment, a Buffalo Soldiers regiment organized in 1869. Its experience in the war remains controversial to this day.
In September 1950, just two months after the war’s outbreak, Maj. Gen. William B. Kean, commander of the 25th Infantry Division – to which the 24th had been attached – recommended that the unit be disbanded because it was “untrustworthy and incapable of carrying out missions expected of an infantry regiment.” Kean’s recommendation was not immediately acted upon because there was no unit available to take its place. In October 1951, the ax fell and the unit was dissolved. It was reinstituted in 1995.
Men of the 25th Infantry Division move up to the firing line in Korea. National Archives photo
In 1996, the U.S. Army Center of Military History published Black Soldier, White Army: The 24th Infantry Regiment in Korea, a detailed study of the unit. The authors wrote that the regiment’s garrison duty, typical in other respects to white units stationed in Japan, was complicated by “an attitude of condescension” among the white officers that “mirrored the low expectations the Army as a whole held toward blacks.” For their part, black officers in the unit, observing the poor quality of many of their white counterparts, came to believe that the 24th had become “a dumping ground for white officers no other unit would have.”
Typical in other respects to white units stationed in Japan, was complicated by “an attitude of condescension” among the white officers that “mirrored the low expectations the Army as a whole held toward blacks.”
A shake-up of leadership begun weeks before the war’s outbreak was accelerated once the decision was made to send the 24th to Korea. But any improvement in leadership was countered by the fact that men unfamiliar with their new commands added another level of morale-eroding uncertainty for inadequately trained and armed men about to go into combat, most for the first time.
Pfc. Clarence Whitmore, voice radio operator, 24th Infantry Regiment, reads the latest news while eating rations during a lull in battle, near Sangju, Korea, Aug. 9, 1950. National Archives photo
The challenges confronting the 24th were enormous. Equipment, vehicles, and weapons were old, worn-out, obsolete, or nonexistent. “Eighty percent of the radios on hand … were non-operational.” Many of the World War II-era M1 rifles were unreliable – men complained that some didn’t even have firing pins. Upon being informed that the unit was going into combat, its highest-ranking black officer, Lt. Col. Forest Lofton, commander of the 1st Battalion, requested reassignment because he claimed that the regiment was unprepared for combat and sending it into action would be a disaster. Lofton was reassigned, and put in command of the detachment responsible for maintaining the 24th’s base in Japan.
Equipment, vehicles, and weapons were old, worn-out, obsolete, or nonexistent. “Eighty percent of the radios on hand … were non-operational.” Many of the World War II-era M1 rifles were unreliable – men complained that some didn’t even have firing pins.
After a chaotic trip from its Japanese base in Gifu that served as yet another confirmation of the prejudices of superiors ill-disposed toward the unit, the 24th arrived at Pusan on July 12 and 13. Two battalions went into Eighth Army Reserve, and its 3rd Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Samuel Pierce, Jr., augmented by an artillery battery, was ordered to take up position at an important crossroad at Yech’on, about 55 miles north of Maj. Gen. William Dean’s 24th Infantry Division headquarters at Taegu. The battalion arrived on July 14 and took up defensive positions in the high ground. The North Korean offensive was at its height and the situation was fluid. Pierce was forced to redeploy units in support of other units nearby as they came under attack. On July 18, the North Korean blow fell on Yech’on. Heavy fighting ensued over the next two days, but the battalion held its ground in what would prove to be the first combat victory by American troops in the war. Two men, Capt. John B. Zanin and Pfc. Jesse J. Willingham, later received Silver Stars. Thanks to Associated Press reporter Tom Lambert, who was there, news of the battalion’s success was acclaimed back in the States.
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur is shown inspecting troops of the 24th Infantry Regiment on his arrival at Kimpo Airfield for a tour of the battlefront, Feb. 21, 1951. U.S. Department of Defense photo
