In the winter of 1943-44, many years before the slogan "Black Pride" became popular, a small group of American Soldiers gave life and meaning to the words. In an army that often relegated blacks to menial jobs,

 

These men succeeded in becoming the nation's first all-Black Parachute Infantry Test Platoon, Company, and Battalion

" The Triple Nickles."

 

The Test Platoon started with twenty young black enlisted men.  Seventeen of those men completed jump training and were awarded Silver Parachute Wings in February 1944; becoming the first Black Paratroopers in history.  They were Calvin R. Beal, Clarence H. Beavers, Ned O. Bess, Hubert Bridges, Lonnie M. Duke, McKinely Godfrey, Jr., Robert F. Greene, James E. Kornegay, Alvin Moon, Walter Morris, Leo D. Reed, Samuel W. Robinson, Carstell O. Stewart, Jack D. Tillis, Roger S. Walden, Daniel C. Weil, and Elijah Wesby.  The officers were soon to follow and were awarded their Silver Parachute Wings in March 1944.  Then came the officers: they were Clifford Allen,  Edward Baker, Bradley Briggs, Warren C. Cornelius, Jasper Ross, and Edwin H. Wills.  But proud paratroopers or not, blacks still had to sit in the back of the bus.  Black captains and lieutenants still were closed out of officers' clubs; and black sergeants still refused a drink in many bars.  However, these troopers rose above all of this to get on with the job of being a superb, combat-ready airborne battalion.

 

The story of The Triple Nickles is a newly told chapter in American military and American social history.  The Black Paratroopers of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion were the first Blackers Soldiers to be integrated into the United States Regular Army, the 82nd Airborne Division, which marked them as pioneers whose achievement had an impact on society far beyond the Army, and paved the way for the modern military and civilian diversity of today.