WE CAN, WE WILL !

OUR GOALS

"Negroes had little, at the turn of the century, to help sustain our faith in ourselves except the pride that we took in the 9th and 10th Cavalry, the 24th and 25th Infantry. Many Negro homes had prints of the famous charge of the colored troops up San Juan Hill. They were our Ralph Bunche, Marian Anderson, Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson."

- Rayford Logan


  1. To establish a regular and continuous Living History program for Arizona's schools system that teaches Buffalo Soldier history.

  2. To ensure this history is truthfully inserted in the primary education history books not only of Arizona but also our nation, along with any racial history of Western people of the 1800s period that has been intentionally left out of print. TRUTHFULLY!

  3. To secure an area of land sufficient to construct a period military post with small town, fully functional (as is Williamsburg VA.). To run this on a 24 hour - 7 day per week basis, living and working as was done in the 1800s.

  4. To have a fully qualified staff of instructors to help youth with any scholastic problems and at the same time teach them, as they participate, about the 1800s way of life.

  5. To have a traveling display to go anywhere in the continental U.S. every year with demonstrators, teaching the history of the Buffalo Soldiers.

  6. To provide qualified personel for lectures and motivational speaking on period history to any and all groups, corps, etc. anywhere in the country.

  7. To help the equestrian industry rediscover the horsemanship skills of the Cavalry that have been forgotten over time and attract more youth into the various disciplines of the horse world.



My name is William McCurtis. I have been a resident of Phoenix, AZ for the last 10 years. My wife and I formed the "9th Memorial Cavalry, Headquarters Troop" ( www.9thcavalry.com ) about seven years ago.

From the very beginning, we determined that the history of the original 9th U.S. Cavalry was so astounding and such a powerful history of what human beings could accomplish, given the chance, we HAD to tell the whole story, good and bad to the public. Blacks in todays military owe their positions to the first four all-black regiments of regular army soldiers ( 9th and 10th Cavalry and 24th and 25th Infantry ) and to us, the inheritors of that tremendous legacy, we could honor them by nothing less than making sure their record of service became public knowledge and placed into our primary education system history books where it should have been.

For almost 140 years, this information lay buried in archives and libraries. These men were true heroes and what better examples to give to our children than the men and women that helped to build and settle this country. Re-enactors?.... .no we are not. We are teachers of living history.

We don't have degrees or titles from renowned institutions. What we do have is the same "Esprit de Corps," love of our country and the willingness and determination to get these men their rightful recognition with honor and respect. The mission of the original 9th Cav. was to protect and pacify the western half of our country. The mission of the 9th Memorial Cav. is to EDUCATE America, especially our children, to the fact that blacks were and are a part of making and keeping this country free.

We don't run camps for kids or anything like that. There are trained professionals for that sort of thing. Our organizations mission and goals are much tougher .... WE HAVE TO TEACH THE HISTORY and that is and will be an on-going effort.

We of the 9th Memorial Cavalry are concerned with giving our kids good examples to remember and respect, learn from and look up to so that they may take their place in our society as strong men and women with the same love, respect and deep devotion to our country and what she stands for.

Respectfully, I Am;

William "Bill" McCurtis
Pres./ Regimental Sergeant Major
9th Mem. Cav., Hq. Troop