Saturday, February 19, 2011

Blackuary Diecinueve- 03AB - Operation Detachment

On this day, Blackuary 19, in 1945, Operation Detachment began. From the Monday that this battle started until the Monday when it ended, March 26th, over six thousand (6,822) United States Marines were killed or went missing. Over nineteen thousand (19,217) were injured. This was the only campaign in the entire length of World War II where the United States suffered more casualties than did Japan, even though the Japanese suffered a TOTAL defeat with only 216 Japanese captured. The rest were killed or went missing and were presumed dead. The Japanese lost 18,375 of their men in this battle.

Of the thirty thousand or so Marines that fought at Iwo Jima, around 900 of them were black. Eleven of those 900 were wounded, two fatally, for a mortality percentage of less than 0.003%. Yes, less than three one thousandths of a percent. A white soldier was over three times more likely to get dead. BECAUSE OF THE RAAAAACISM!!!

By the way, when searching for this information, I ran across an article published about black Marines in the Jackson Advocate from 1995. In case you are unaware of the Jackson Advocate, it is the Black Klan's newspaper from Jackson, Mississippi. I am uncertain if the paper is still in existence, but my assumption would be that it is not.

Also, Jackson Jambalaya has a 6:41 COLOR video of the historic event.

Oh, and you can check the Wiki, too.

Also, if you check the "Black History" sites, they ALL have that today (in 1942) was the day that the Tuskegee Airmen were initiated. This is UNTRUE. The program was initiated by Appropriations 18 on April 3, 1939 and the actual training was begun in 1941. Eleanor Roosevelt actually flew with one of the trainers at Maxwell in March of 1941. This was five months after the actual training of black pilots had already begun. So, if someone tells you that February 19, 1942 was when the Tuskegee Airmen started, tell them that they need to check out Your MoM for the truth.

Oh, and if folks try to tell you that the Tuskegee Airmen never lost a plane, that is BULLSHIT, too.

Please take the time to comment.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That Marine link was very very interesting...they filtered the black candidates to high school graduates and above, on one stroke making the black Marines "smarter" than the white ones.

That is very interesting...maybe that rule was put in place so the "Negro" Marines would show that they belong and can be trained to be equal or greater. I wonder what would have happened if they took in black school dropouts, how would that have affected discipline and performance results.

Trying doing that today and disparate impact will be shouted, or the usual racism...never expect more out of a black person in today's world, it always safer to just expect less..much, much less.

About the Tuskegee Airmen, the no plane loss is an embellishment...everyone should know war heroics/accomplishments are embellished to a degree, look at what happened to the Pat Tillman story (died charging heroically charging up a hill...really?).

History is a pack a lies we play on the dead.
-Voltaire

Roderick

Paul Mitchell said...

Roderick, the thing that gets me about all the legends about the Tuskegee Airmen is that they were utterly amazing, but the lies and fantasies made up about them just sullies the entire story. Their protection rate was actually better than the rest of the Army Air Corp, while still getting the shittier tasking. They knew they had to be better.

You ought to see the housing they stayed in near Maxwell, it would STILL be awesome housing if the Air Force had taken care of it. Now, it is just a burned out Detroit looking place.

paul mitchell said...

Roderick, the thing that gets me about all the legends about the Tuskegee Airmen is that they were utterly amazing, but the lies and fantasies made up about them just sullies the entire story. Their protection rate was actually better than the rest of the Army Air Corp, while still getting the shittier tasking. They knew they had to be better.

You ought to see the housing they stayed in near Maxwell, it would STILL be awesome housing if the Air Force had taken care of it. Now, it is just a burned out Detroit looking place.