Commanding a Segregated Unit of the US Army
From the Memoirs (unpublished) of Col. W.J. Bethancourt Jr, US Army (Ret.)
In 1950, I was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Ft Bragg in North Carolina. I was a major at that time and a brand new parachutist. I was ordered to be the executive officer for the 1st Bn. of the 325th Airborne Regiment. Later for a time I commanded the first battalion.
The Korean War was just starting, so that makes it the summer of 1950. The Department of the Army ordered two battalions (separate) be organized at Ft. Bragg, and the 82nd was to furnish part of the officer cadre. I was ordered to the 80th Infantry Bn. (separate) which were to be part of the V Corps troops. Fillers were to be draftees and African Americans. Hereafter I will refer to the troops as black.
A number of black enlisted reservists were called to duty and assigned to the 80th, along with some reserve officers, both black and white. The 3rd Bn. of the 505th Airborne Inf. Regiment was a segregated unit, quartered away from the rest of the regiment. The 3/505 supplied me with non-commissioned officers, on loan. The 80th was given an area in the Spring Lakes part of Ft. Bragg. The buildings were of WWII vintage, and were in good repair. I was assigned a few cooks and bakers, clerks and so on to fill the cadre in part. Then the troops started arriving - several companies in strength at the same time. These draftees were from Baltimore and Philadelphia - city people. The fillers had been issued all their clothing and equipment at the reception centers.
As soon as the men were assigned to companies, we started training. The Reserve EM, some with considerable NCO rank, were not very useful as many of them had not served in a line unit during WWII and actually didn't know "fours east" from "slope arms." I ordered night training to give the NCOs the necessary information to teach the new soldiers the next day.
With the large numbers of recruits arriving, I soon ran out of cooks and bakers, so with each batch of recruits I would ask for men with cooking experience and sent them directly to the kitchen. We managed after a fashion. Now V Corps was ordered to Germany and we were assigned under the command of the 82nd Division. So at that time I went to see the G-1 of the division to caution him about not ordering a battalion unit size again. He advised me that he was capable of doing his job. As a result, I wound up with a double issue of recruits - 2000 men to feed, house, and train. The only thing I could do was double bunk all the beds and draw additional kitchen equipment, draw rations for that many soldiers, and tough it out.
After we had settled down a little and the recruits had their initial training and we could give them passes into town, I started the Monday morning routine. This routine consisted of a battalion parade at reveille. We would strip to the waist, I would order "right face" and "double time march" and we would run until I got tired, usually about four or five miles. We ended up passing the 3/505 area when my soldiers would Jody-Chant, "Muddy boots and dirty brass, the 505 can kiss our a**," which caused the windows of the 3/505 to be flung up in anger. Some of the 3/505 troopers would sometimes come into our area and generate a disturbance (not taken kindly by my men). It was a good thing that I spent a lot of time in the battalion areas in my off-duty hours or there might have been some major problems. I realized that my men had not received enough disciplinary training, still being recruits. I needed to set up telephone lines to each of the companies and asked the CO of 1/325 to loan me the use of his signal detachment - which he did. Now when I commanded the 1/325, we did a lot of foot marching. In fact, we got so good that we could knock off about 25, come in and be back out on passes in the same time that it took other units to do the same route. Anyway, one of the 1/325 soldiers, who was talking to my crew of budding signal people, remarked, "Major Bethancourt is a walking son of a b****," and my black soldier replied, "Walking? Hell, he is a RUNNING son of a b****."
One time I gathered the battalion into the large hall (auditorium) and addressed them, "I look around this room and do not see a single n***** - all I see is American soldiers." My officers soon forgot that their men were black and acted accordingly. I was pleased. It was as it should have been.
About that time, we were designated Twenty-Fifth Armored Infantry, and received the old colors and awards of the regiment. I swear that some of the colors still had Indian arrows sticking in them. Anyhow, we received the honors of the old 25th. I knew the 25th at Fort Huachuca, AZ in the early 1930's. They were well trained, disciplined, and reflected the army as it was in those days - skeleton companies of 50 men or so. No soldier could make PFC on his first enlistment, and the first sergeants knew their jobs to the finest detail. To be exact, the non-commissioned officers ran the company and all the company commanders really had to do was sign the morning report. The 25th band was great, and as we had cadets, they had to learn all the ceremonies. They would play for us when we did a formal guard mount. To my delight, when they trooped the line, they would play "Shuffle Off to Buffalo", a popular tune at that time.
Going back to the 25th Armored Infantry - We also had guard mount and the outstanding soldier would be appointed to be my orderly. All he had to do was sit outside my office door and wait to see if I needed anything. I think that I had impressed with them that the colors of the old 25th were holy objects and that the orderly was guarding the colors, which were in my office. Anyhow, he did not have to be out in the cold, walking post. It can get chilly at Bragg in the winter.
25th Infantry Band ca. 1882
At Bragg we had a segregated USO in Fayetteville. I was an honorary member of the board and the director was a wonderful lady who did everything she could for her soldiers. There were several all-black units on post, including a Parachute AA Unit.
B Company had a party in town (Fayetteville) and I put on my best uniform and my wife wore an appropriate gown. It was a nice party and the men of B Company played the music themselves. So if a trumpet player wanted to dance, he would signal another soldier and the band would not miss a beat. The music was superb. After awhile, my wife and I (after thanking the hosts) left and went to the Ft. Bragg Officer's Club. The music was lousy.
The company commander of B Company was a black captain, a fine man and a good officer. Well, one night B Company was having night training out by one of the lakes on the post. The company commander had gathered the company about him on the flats and was explaining what they were going to do. It was dark and somebody hollered, "Snake!" and the entire company bolted as one man. When I arrived, the company was doing close order drill. I asked the captain about it, as that was not what they were supposed to be doing. He explained and I assured him that I agreed with his actions. I think they did close order drill all night.
We were out on bivouac one night and it was COLD. I slept in a pup tent, also and so early the next morning, I was up to see that the kitchens were ready to serve breakfast. After getting a hot cup of coffee from one of the field kitchens, I walked over to the next company kitchen. When I got there, my hot cup of coffee had frozen.
Now as I told you earlier, some of my NCOs were not the best and one day I found a sergeant with his section hiding out from training in a little wooded area. I sent them back to their unit. I was angry, but only lectured the sergeant. I expect that I should have reduced him, but left that up to his company commander. Well, we finished basic and small unit training and the battalion was ordered to Fort Hood, TX to join the 1st Armored Division (Old Ironside) - commanded at that time by Brigadier General Bruce Clark.
I was ordered to select out 1000 men for the 25th Armored Infantry and to send the rest back to Fort Jackson, SC. What we sent to Ft. Jackson were the men who were the least capable of ever being good soldiers. I point out that some men were taking dope and that some men were continual VD cases. My company commanders kept the best. Along about that time, some fancy pants officers would come down from the Pentagon and ask how I felt about segregation. My reply was to assure them that integration was the only practical answer.
At the end of our small unit training, I sent the men on furlough to their homes. Some did not want to go, so we moved the battalion, less the men on furlough, to North Fort Hood, TX. I went on the troop train with my men. Often we would have a layover for a short period and I would order the men to fall out on the platform and do physical exercises. I instructed the commanders to make the men tired, as we had been sitting on the train for a couple of days. Some of the local black men thought I was a mean old guy. But the men did need to get their blood circulating and be tired enough to doze in their seats.
Some of my soldiers asked me about snakes in Texas and I told them, yes, there were snakes and that I would give them $10.00 for every rattle snake they brought me. I never had to pay. I did expect the snake to be dead.
Now during training at Bragg, we had to do the infiltration course. This is crawling under barbed wire while under live machine gun fire in the dark for about 50 yards. I went first and was standing with the weapons company commander from D 1/325. I wanted a man on the guns I could trust. Of course the machine guns were blocked up so that as long as a soldier kept his head down and crawled under the wire, he was in no danger. All of a sudden, I heard a loud screaming and I told the captain to cease-fire and turn on the lights. We walked down the course and found one of my men had lost his helmet and was scared to death. I think I kicked his butt all the way back to the end of the course.
As perhaps I have not mentioned, several of my lieutenants were just out of ROTC in college. We were throwing live grenades at 55-gallon drums from trenches. When I arrived, I found two of the lieutenants playing "chicken" to see who would have to throw their grenades first after letting up the handle. The lieutenants (white) got a chewing that they, hopefully, remember to this day. All that money spent by the United States for their school and training could be gone to hell in one second. It would have killed them both.
Now Brigadier General Bruce Clark knew what he wanted the 1st Armored Division to become and we trained his style. For instance, outside of Garrison we had to be ready to fight at "first light in the morning." I mean, we had to crank all engines, have had breakfast, stowed our gear, and reported by radio to the next higher unit. This makes a lot of sense to me. Radio discipline was demanded. There was no idle chat on the air and blowing into a mike would get you an "Article 15".
The armored infantry battalions in the division all had half-tracks. On the assault, when the tracks stopped, the infantry would bail out and take up firing positions. We even fired our 81-mm mortars from the half-tracks. The 25th riflemen could clear the half-tracks in about 1.5 seconds. Man how they would peel over the sides. Once we were having a sort of demonstration maneuver and my tracks were moving aggressively ahead, doing so well that the division commander told me to have my vehicles to take cover and hold up until the rest of the division could catch up. I was on a hill watching my 25th and on my radio command, they immediately disappeared. That was discipline. You know that enlisted men commanded the fighting vehicles. I'm saying that the 25th was disciplined and the NCOs were smart. Then when we took the final objective, guess who took the hill - 25th Infantry men with bayonets.
After a few months, the division received some Lt. Colonels just out of staff and command school, so I was bumped down to Battalion Exe. Gen. Clark asked me if I wanted to be transferred, and I told him I would stay with the 25th. Later I was given command of the 702nd Armored Infantry Battalion and I left the 25th.
(Incidentally, Col. Bethancourt's brothers Arthur and Van spent some time with the 10th Cavalry as CMT cadets (the predecessor to ROTC) at Camp Stephen B. Little outside Nogales about 1931.)
Col. Bethancourt retired from active duty in 1961, and became a Junior High School science teacher in the Roosevelt District of South Phoenix. He passed to his Eternal Reward on September 5th, 2003.
More History of the 25th Infantry
See also: Ft Huachuca Museum Magazine Vol 3 1999