The Parachute Test Platoon - 11th ABN Div

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http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/7443/testp1.html This links to info about the original (all white) test platoon in 1940. Due to racist policies in place at the begining of WWII, most black soliders found themselves relegated to CSS positions, despite the proud combat history of black units like the 55th Massachusetts Infantry in the Civil War, the 9th and 10th Cavalry "Buffalo Soldiers" in the Old West, and the "Hell Fighters of Harlem" in WWI. Thus at first, only white troops got the opportunity to earn the title paratrooper. Eventually black soldiers such as Walter Morris and Bradley Biggs led the way for equality in the airborne. During WWII, these brave men fought fires in the Pacific Northwest, as smokejumpers. In 1946, w/ airborne icon MG Jim Gavin in command of the 82nd Airborne DIV, the all-black 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was integrated into the 505th PIR. Like so many have posted above, it's amazing what the Triple Nickel Paratroopers went through to earn their wings. These troopers set a great example for all subsequent generations of paratroopers.

http://www.vahistory.org/WWII/nara/ww2160af-amer.jpg
Here is a photo of some of the first black paratroopers at Ft. Benning. Caption originally published under photo reads: "Sixteen Negro soldiers recently won the coveted 'wings' of the U.S. Army paratroopers at Fort Benning, in the southern U.S. state of Georgia. The picture shows some of them riding high in a C-47 transport plane preparing to make one of the required five qualifying jumps."

Main Page (http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/7443/testp1.html)

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Another nice pictures ... related to this topic

http://www.triplenickle.com/NEW-2.jpg
Test Platoon - First 16 qualified black paratroopers (1944) Enlisted men of the Test Platoon. Front Row from L-R: First Sgt. Walter Morris, first black enlisted man accepted for airborne duty • Sgt. Jack D. Tillis • Sgt. Leo D. Reed • Sgt Daniel Weil *S. Sgt. Hubert Bridges • Tech. Grade IV Alvin L. Moon • Sgt. Ned D. Bess • Sgt. Roger S. Walden Back Row from L-R • Cpl. McKinley Godfrey, Jr. • Sgt. Elijah Wesby • Sgt. Samuel W. Robinson • S. Sgt. Calvin R. Beal • S. Sgt Robert F. Greene • S. Sgt. Lonnie M. Duke • Sgt. Clarence H. Beavers and Sgt. James E. Kornegay. Not Shown Carstell O. Stewart, the seventeenth, who was on emergency leave and earned his wings a week later.

http://www.triplenickle.com/NEW-8.jpg
The Officers of the test platoon (1944) Left to Right • First Lt. Jasper E. Ross, Chicago, IL • Second Lt. Clifford Allen, Chicago, IL • Second Lt. Bradley Biggs, Newark, NJ • Second Lt. Edwin H. Wills, Washington, DC • Second Lt. Warren C. Cornelius, Atlantic City, NJ • Second Lt. Edward Baker, Chicago, IL

http://www.triplenickle.com/SJUMPERS.jpg
Smoke Jumpers -- Army paratroopers of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion stand at ease during inspection. The men were issued the usual "let-down" ropes and football helmets with wire face masks, but wore sheepskin outer garments rather than canvas smokejumper suits.

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Another unit ... but good story:


1940 Parachute test platoon-tell jump stories

Posted on Wed, Sep. 03, 2003 Parachute platoon Two members of Fort Benning's
original airborne unit remember their first jumps BY MICK WALSH Staff Writer
Roll is relatively easy to take of the 48 original members of 1940's Parachute
Test Platoon at Fort Benning. Louie Davis? Here. Mac McCullough? Here. Thad
Selman? Here. Ben Reese? Here. No other names need to be called. "I guess it's
down to just us four," said 86-year-old Reese, glancing across the restaurant
table at fellow Columbus resident Davis. "Yeah, and you don't look so good,"
cracked 81-year-old Davis. "Of course, I was the kid of the outfit." And one of
the few, he added, that had a car. "Hey," he winked, "we were all single back
then." Every year, 'bout this time, Reese and Davis reminisce about those weeks
in July and August so many years ago when the two of them did what seemed so
unnatural at the time: they jumped out of an airplane. McCullough, from Ohio,
and Selman, a fellow Georgian, are the other members of what is a quite
exclusive club. All but Selman were honored at the recent National Airborne Day
celebration at Fort Benning. "It's best you talk to us together," said Reese,
who was so badly wounded on D-Day that he was listed as Killed in Action. "That
way we can correct each other's lies." Though the two men probably know every
detail of each other's careers -- both are retirees -- they listen intently to
each other's tales as if it was the first time hearing them. "You know where the
jump towers are now," said Reese, who says he joined the Army only because his
local Coast Guard recruiting office was closed, "that used to be nothing but
swamp land. And full of skunks." Davis laughed. "You want skunks? You should
have seen the ones at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville." Both were born and raised
in Georgia -- Reese in Early County, Davis in Lawrenceville. Both were sons of
farmers. And both came of age during the Depression. Many a man escaped the land
in the late '30s to join the Army, even though pay was a meager $21 a month.
Reese could have made more money as a butcher down in Donaldsonville, which he
considered, or by operating a "rolling" grocery store, which he actually did for
a while. But something about the Army intrigued him. He arrived at Benning in
1939 and quickly rose to the rank of supply sergeant. That's when a note
appeared on the barracks door, seeking volunteers for the "parachute infantry."
"I'd never even seen a parachute before," he said, but he put his name on the
list. Davis' parents had to sign a waiver for him to get into the Army at age 16.
"I was tired of following a mule," he said. "Plus, I had two brothers in the 29th
Infantry Regiment and I had made plenty of visits to Benning to see them." It
was a dare with fellow soldier Johnnie Ellis that got Davis in to the test
platoon. "I thought we were both kidding," he said. "And we both wound up in the
platoon. I thought we were smarter than that." More than 200 volunteered for the
platoon, 48 were picked. "There was no program like the one they have at
Airborne school today," Davis said. The group moved into tents at Lawson Field
and an abandoned hangar was used as a training hall and for parachute packing.
Forty-five days after the unit was put together -- training now consists of
three weeks -- members of the test platoon completed their first jumps from a C-33
aircraft. "I was the last man out of the plane that day," Davis said. "The
jumpmaster had to slap me on the rear end to make sure I jumped. But once I did,
it was fun." He went on to make more than 150 jumps. Reese landed on a cement
ramp near the Lawson drop zone. That prepared him for what was to come a few
years later when he dropped behind enemy lines on D-Day and was wounded by a
German hand grenade. The men talk little about what came immediately after that
first jump on Aug. 16, 1940. But they really don't have to. They'd already done
something that no other soldier had ever done before them. "Were we crazy or
what?" Davis said. Then both men broke into laughter and returned to eating
their pizza. Infantry Bred, Airborne Fed, Ranger Led !