Posts tagged ‘SHAKO’
SHAKO: Two Days, Two Legendary Battles
The Battles of PUEBLA and CAMARON
The calendar this month is bracketed by two important dates in the military histories of Mexico and France: April 30, 1863, the Battle of Camaron, and May 5, 1862, the Battle of Puebla. Both took place during the invasion of Mexico in a failed attempt to create an imperial French colony.
In 1861, Benito Juárez, the embattled president of Mexico, declared a two-year moratorium on his country’s debt payments to England, France and Spain.
Mexico, which gained its independence from Spain in 1821, had been battered over the intervening years by revolts (including the Texas Revolution in 1836), invasions (the Mexican-American War, 1846-1848), and a ruinous, recently concluded civil war (1858-1861) with Mexican conservatives, who sought to establish a monarchy with a European prince.
All three creditor countries mounted a joint naval expedition to force Juárez to pay what Mexico owed them. England and Spain — after reaching a deal with the Juáristas — soon withdrew when it became apparent France’s Emperor Napoleon III (THE Napoleon’s nephew) was loo0king to collect more than an overdue check. With the unpaid debt as a pretext, and the United States too distracted by its own Civil War to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, the Second French Empire of Napoleon III invaded Mexico in December 1861.
PUEBLA, A SURPRISE MEXICAN VICTORY
French commanders planned a rapid thrust from the Gulf port of Vera Cruz to take the capital of Mexico City, but outnumbered Mexican forces defeated them in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.
Battle of Puebla 1862 via wikipedia.
Certain of a swift victory, 6,000 French troops under General Charles de Lorencez set out to attack Puebla de Los Angeles, a city about 80 miles southeast of Mexico City. From his new headquarters in the north, Juarez rounded up a ragtag force and sent them to Puebla, according to the History Channel website.
Led by General Ignacio Zaragoza, an estimated 2,000—5,000 Mexicans fortified the town and prepared for the assault by the better-equipped French force. On the fifth of May, or Cinco de Mayo, Lorencez began an attack from the north side of Puebla.
The battle lasted from daybreak to early evening. Artillery bombardments preceded two French infantry assaults, one of which was repulsed in close quarters combat. The French artillery ran out of ammunition before the third assault and Zaragoza took advantage in the pause, launching his cavalry against the flank of the French third assault. That caused the French formations to break and flee the battlefield, according to Chicago’s Pritzker Museum and Military Library.
After Lorencez realized his superior French force was losing far more troops than the Mexicans, he withdrew. Though not a major strategic victory in the overall war against the French, Zaragoza’s victory at Puebla galvanized Mexican resistance.
The Mexican general was hailed a hero but he died of typhoid fever four months after the battle. French general Lorencez was replaced after the unexpected defeat, but the French did not depart Mexico. They took Puebla a year later, and in 1864, the French were in Mexico City and Napoleon III installed Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian as emperor of Mexico.
Once the American Civil War ended in 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant sent thousands of troops to the Mexican border and shipped arms to the Juaristas. Eventually, Secretary of State William Seward insisted the French leave. and in 1867, the Mexican “empire” collapsed as French troops withdrew. Maximilian was deposed and executed by Juárista forces
The first victory at Puebla played an important role in U.S. history, according to a 2022 blog posted on the Library of Congress website. France had not recognized the Confederacy — no nation ever did — but was considering it. According to Clark Crook-Castan, a historian, former U.S. diplomat and vice president of the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, the victory at Puebla delayed French consideration of a plan that might have helped the Confederates.
“The French hoped to circumvent the Union naval blockade by shipping long-range artillery overland to Texas and on to the Confederate armies in the east,” he said. By the time the French gained control of Mexico’s border with Texas in the summer of 1863, Grant had won the Battle of Vicksburg, cutting off the Confederates’ access to weapons from the west.
Modern day Cinco de Mayo celebrations are widespread in the United States but in Mexico, they are largely confined to the area around Puebla. However, some of the first U.S. Cinco de Mayo celebrations were in California in the 1860s. California Latinos were strong Union supporters and staunch opponents of slavery, which Mexico had outlawed long before the United States.
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CAMARON, LAST STAND OF THE LEGIONNAIRES
Almost a year after their setback at Puebla in 1862, the French expeditionary force in Mexico resumed its push toward Mexico City. Puebla was placed under siege.
The 1st Regiment of the French Foreign Legion arrived in Mexico to reinforce the French troops who had been stationed there for two years. Because their ranks were filled with men from all over Europe, many French commanders distrusted the legionnaires, and did not want them on the front lines. So, they were given the mission of providing security for supply convoys on the road from Vera Cruz to Puebla and beyond.
Captain Jean Danjou and two other officers volunteered for a reconnaissance mission in advance of a valuable supply convoy heading for Puebla, with artillery, ammunition and a payroll of 3 million French francs. With sixty-two men and two lieutenants under his command, Danjou encountered some 3,000 Mexican cavalry and infantry.
Danjou was a battle-hardened veteran who served in North Africa, the Second Italian War of Independence and the Crimean War. He lost a hand when his musket exploded during a mapping expedition in Algeria. In its place he wore a wooden hand he made himself.
Danjou’s men held off the Mexican cavalry, before falling back to a strong defensive position in “Hacienda Camarón,” a high-walled former ranch house. The situation was hopeless, but Danjou refused to surrender. His legionnaires swore to fight to the death. Barricaded in the hacienda, they cut down wave after wave of Mexican infantry with disciplined fire.
“Maudet’s charge,” by Pierre Bénigni. Source: Musée du Souvenir de la Légion étrangère (Foreign Legion Remembrance Museum).
At around midday Danjou was shot in the chest and killed. Resistance continued for another four hours and the number of dead and wounded mounted until only six men were left fighting—Lieutenant Maudet and five legionnaires. Rejecting Mexican calls to surrender, this remnant fixed bayonets and charged the Mexican line. Two men fell immediately and the rest were surrounded. When a Mexican major ordered the Legionnaires to surrender, Corporal Phillipe Maine answered, “We will surrender if you leave us our weapons and our equipment. You also have to promise to take care of our wounded lieutenant.”
When the remaining legionnaires were brought to the Mexican commander, he asked, “Is this all of them? Is this all of the men who are left?” Then, in amazement, he exclaimed, “These are not men! They are demons!”
Forty-three members of Danjou’s 65-man command were killed. Another 20 were wounded. Mexican losses were said to be more than 90 dead and several hundred wounded.
Emperor Napoleon III decided that the name Camarón would be printed on the Foreign Legion’s flag and that the names Danjou, Vilain and Maudet would be engraved in gold on the walls of the Invalides in Paris.
A monument was erected in 1892 on the battleground. It bears the inscription: Here there were less than sixty men fighting against an entire army. Its numbers crushed them. Life rather than courage abandoned these French soldiers on April 30, 1863. In their memory, the motherland has erected this monument.
The wooden hand of Captain Danjou presented on 2016 Cameron Day in Aubagne, France is carried by General Grosjean, a former Foreign Legion officer. This duty is considered the highest honor for any veteran of the Legion.
Capitain Danjou’s wooden hand was taken to Aubagne, where it remains in the Legion Museum of Memory. The hand is the most cherished artifact in Legion history. April 30 is celebrated as “Camerone Day,” when the wooden prosthetic hand is brought out for display in a grand ceremony. The honor granted to the legionnaire to carry it on parade in its protective case is among the greatest bestowed by the Legion.
As part of its traditional celebrations, the account of Camarón is read out to the troops in each Legion unit, wherever it may be in the world and whatever the circumstances.
Narration of Cameron (Recit de Camerone) in the Sahara in the early 1950s, read by a lieutenant of the 1st Legion Saharan Motorized Company (via French Foreign Legion information website).
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York
SHAKO: Long Wait For A Hero Is Over
NO MAN LEFT BEHIND
President Joe Biden congratulates Medal of Honor recipient, retired U.S. Army Colonel Paris D. Davis on March 3, 2023, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
Almost fifty-eight years after a young Army Special Forces captain braved exploding mortar rounds and hand grenades as well as rifle and machine gun fire to rescue three other wounded Green Berets, the world now knows what the soldiers who survived that deadly ambush and two-day battle in Vietnam know — Paris Davis deserves the United States’ highest award for military valor — for his staggering bravery and incredible selflessness under fire.
At a White House ceremony on March 3, 2022, President Joe Biden presented the now 83-year-old retired Army colonel with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the vicinity of Bong Son, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) on June17-18, 1965. “This … may be the most consequential day since I’ve been President. This is an incredible man,” Biden said at the opening of the ceremony.
Then-Captain Davis led a Special Forces team and some 80 inexperienced South Vietnamese soldiers in a nigh time attack on a Viet Cong camp. At first the element of surprise worked but then the V.C. counterattacked. Davis’ unit was vastly outnumbered, but he captain rallied the troops, took the fight to the enemy and rescued his men who were cut off and wounded. Once support arrived, he was ordered to leave, but despite his wounds, he opted to stay to ensure that no man was left behind.
Capt. Paris Davis, Vietnam, 1965. (Photo by Ron Deis)
Over the course of two days, Davis selflessly led a charge to neutralize enemy emplacements, called for precision artillery fire, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, and prevented the capture of three American soldiers (Robert Brown, John Reinberg, and Billy Waugh) while saving their lives with a medical extraction. Davis sustained multiple gunshot and grenade fragment wounds during the 19-hour battle and refused to leave the battlefield until his men were safely removed.
Davis, who was among the first African American officers in the Green Berets, was awarded the Silver Star medal (the nation’s third highest decoration for bravery in combat) but those who were there that day. Those whom he saved, said Davis should get the Medal of Honor and they put it in writing.
“I wish I could say that this story of Paris’s sacrifice on that day in 1965 was fully recognized and rewarded immediately. But sadly, we know they weren’t,” Biden told the audience at the White House ceremony.
“At the time Captain Davis returned from war, the country still battling segregation. He returned from Vietnam to experience some of his fellow soldiers crossing to the other side of the street when they saw him in America. And although the men who were with him on that June day immediately nominated Captain Davis to receive the Medal of Honor, somehow the paper- — the paperwork was never processed not just once, but twice,” Biden said.
“But you know what Colonel Davis said after learning he would finally receive the Medal of Honor? Quote, ‘America was behind me. America was behind me.’ He never lost faith, which I find astounding,” Biden added.
For more on this remarkable soldier, commando, officer and leader, click here and here (reading of the Medal of Honor citation) and here.
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
SHAKO: Women’s History Month — Harriet Tubman. Union Army Scout, Spy, Nurse and Cook
THE WOMAN THEY CALLED “MOSES”
Harriet Tubman, photographed by Harvey Lindsley. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)
CHURCH CREEK, Maryland — If you’ve heard about the Underground Railroad, then you’ve probably heard of Harriet Tubman.
Despite its name, the Underground Railroad wasn’t a real railroad of iron tracks and engines, but a network of people, white and black, providing shelter and other assistance to people escaping enslavement in the South before the American Civil War.
According to Pulitzer Prize winning historian Eric Foner, “the individual most closely associated with the underground railroad is Harriet Tubman.” Born a slave on the eastern shore of Maryland in 1822, “this remarkable woman,” Foner notes, escaped enslavement in 1849 and during the following decade made at least 13 forays back to Maryland leading some 70 men, women and children — including members of her own family — out of bondage.
Her fame spread widely and by the late 1850s she became known as “Moses,” to fugitive slaves and those still held in bondage. After the Civil War, the great abolitionist, orator and statesman, Frederick Douglass — himself an escaped slave from Maryland — wrote of Tubman: “Excepting John Brown–of sacred memory–I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people,” according to Foner in Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad..
But here at 4GWAR blog we’re celebrating Harriet Tubman during Women’s History month – and International Women’s Day — for her service as a scout and spy, as well as a nurse and cook, for the Union Army during the Civil War — and her battle with government bureaucracy to get paid for her service.
The Next Thing to Hell
According to Maryland’s Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park & Visitor Center, Tubman rose above the “horrific childhood adversity” of a Maryland plantation. Three of her sisters were sold to distant plantations in the Deep South. Harriet was taken from her mother at the age of 6 and hired out to other enslavers. She was nearly killed when hit in the head by a heavy iron weight thrown by an angry storekeeper at another slave. She suffered debilitating seizures for the rest of her life. Married to a free black man, John Tubman, she fled bondage after learning she could be sold away from her family to settle her deceased master’s debts. “Slavery,” she said, “is the next thing to hell.” The state park museum is located in Church Creek, Maryland amid wetlands and woods where Tubman and other escaping slaves may have fled.
Portrayal of Harriet Tubman’s rescue of fugitive slaves at the Tubman Underground Railroad State Park & Visitor Center. (4GWAR photo by Deborah Zabarenko, Copyright Sonoma Road Strategies)
Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, empowering slave owners to track down runaway slaves even in free states and carry them back to enslavement. The law required U.S. Marshals and local law enforcement officers to assist in the recovery of runaways and made it a crime to hinder those efforts. No escaped slave, like Tubman, still somebody’s property in the eyes of the law, could rely on the safety of living in a northern state. That same year Tubman made her first journey back to Maryland to aid the escape of an enslaved niece and her two children north to Canada.
Over the next 10 years, Tubman used numerous methods to help the escape of other slaves. She relied on trustworthy people to hide her and fugitives. She used disguises. She bribed people. She walked, rode horses and wagons and traveled on boats and trains to make her way North with her “passengers.”. Often guided by the stars, she worked her way along rivers and through forests and swamps where she had labored as a slave. Tubman made her last rescue trek in 1860.
Warnings to escaped slaves in the North after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. (4GWAR photo by Deborah Zabarenko, copyright Sonoma Road Strategies)
New Use for Underground Skills
When the Civil War broke out, she spent the early years assisting with the care and feeding of the massive numbers of slaves who fled areas controlled by the Union Army. By the spring of 1863, however, Union officials found a more active role for Tubman. Union troops in South Carolina needed information on the strength of Confederate forces, the locations of their encampments and the designs of fortifications. They thought the needed intelligence could be acquired by short-term spying operations behind enemy lines, and that Tubman — with the skills she acquired in her underground railroad days — was the person organize and lead the effort.
Tubman started her spy organization with a selected few former slaves knowledgeable about the area to be scouted. Often disguised as a field hand or poor farm wife, she led several spy missions herself, while directing others from Union lines. She reported her intelligence findings to Colonel James Montgomery, a Union officer commanding the Second South Carolina Volunteers, a black unit involved in irregular warfare, according to intelligence professional P.K. Rose, wrote about Black Americans intelligence efforts for the Union Army in Studies in Intelligence, a journal published by the CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence.
“The tactical intelligence Tubman provided to Union forces during the war was frequent, abundant, and used effectively in military operations,” Rose noted.
Raid of the Second South Carolina Volunteers, Harpers Weekly July 4 1863 edition. Click on the photo to enlarge image.
In one operation, at the behest of Union General David Hunter, Tubman guided two Union gunboats carrying Montgomery and 150 of his Black soldiers up the Combahee River in South Carolina to raid Confederate supply lines. The Rebels were taken by surprise and Union forces destroyed houses, barns and rice at nearby plantations, and liberated between 700 and 800 enslaved people.
Despite earning commendations as a valuable scout and soldier, Tubman still faced the racism and sexism of America after the Civil War, according to a Tubman biographer. When Tubman sought payment for her service as a spy, the U.S. Congress denied her claim. It paid the eight Black male scouts, but not her.
She eventually was awarded a pension but only as the widow of a Civil War soldier, her second husband Nelson Davis, whom she married after John Tubman died in 1867.
Long overdue recognition is finally catching up with Harriet Tubman’s accomplishments, according to Larson. The Harriet Tubman $20 bill will replace the current one featuring a portrait of U.S. President Andrew Jackson. And in June 2021, Tubman was accepted into the United States Army Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. She is one of 278 members, 17 of whom are women, honored for their special operations leadership and intelligence work.
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
SHAKO: Black History Month, Fighting to Serve – Part II
The Protest Ride of Colonel Charles Young.
Brigadier General Charles Young was one of the earliest African-American graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The third graduate, in fact, class of 1889. And like his predecessors, Young suffered the same racial insults and social isolation from instructors and other cadets on a daily basis.
Col. Charles Young autographed photo: “Yours for Race and Country, Charles Young. 22 Feby., 1919.” (Photo courtesy of Library of Congress)
Despite the rampant racism in the military and the United States as a whole at that time, Young managed a successful career, serving in nearly all of America’s military conflicts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries including the closing days of the Indian Wars and the Spanish-American War. He commanded units of the all black 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments — the Buffalo Soldiers — in the Philippine Insurrection (now known as the Philippine-American War 1899-1902) and the 1916 Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa in Mexico.
During his distinguished career, Young also served as a diplomat and educator. He was posted as military attaché to Haiti and the Dominican Republic and later, military advisor to the President of Liberia. He also served as a professor at Wilberforce University and supervisor of a National Park. In the summer of 1917, a few months after the United States entered the First World War, Charles Young became the first African American to reach the rank of Colonel.
Captain Charles Young (seated, 5th from left, front row) with his 9th Cavalry troopers while in the Philippines, circa 1902. (Photo courtesy of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio)
Despite an impressive leadership record, the Army refused Young’s request to command American troops in Europe. Military leaders told Young, then 53, he was not healthy enough to serve overseas. An examining board, convened on July 7, 1917 to consider Young’s fate, still found him medically unfit for duty, citing hypertension and other pulmonary issues. However they recommended “in view of the present war conditions the physical condition of this officer be waived and that he be promoted to the next higher grade.” The board forwarded their recommendation onto Adjutant General of the Army for a final decision.
In the Summer of 1918, Young tried one more time to prove to the Army that he was fit for duty. On June 6, 1918, Young saddled his black mare named Blacksmith and headed east to Washington D.C. on what became known as his ‘Protest Ride.’ At the time, Army officers were required to demonstrate their fitness to serve in the cavalry by riding 90 miles in three days on horseback. To prove his fitness, Young, then 54, rode from his home in Wilberforce, Ohio to the nation’s capital, a total of 497 miles — nearly six times the distance of the cavalry fitness ride — in 17 days.
“I rode on horseback from Wilberforce to Washington, walking on foot fifteen minutes in each hour, the distance of 497 miles to show, if possible, my physical fitness for command of troops. I there offered my services gladly at the risk of life, which has no value to me if I cannot give it for the great ends for which the United States is striving,” Young wrote later.
Major Charles Young during the Mexican Punitive Expedition. (Photo courtesy of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio)
His gallant effort failed to persuade Secretary of War Newton Baker, however, and Colonel Young did not get to lead American soldiers in Europe.
The War Department sent him back to Ohio to help muster and train African-American recruits. Days before the November 11th armistice ended the war, Young was assigned to Camp Grant, Illinois to train black servicemen. Shortly thereafter, at the request of the State Department, Colonel Young was sent once more to serve as military attaché to Liberia, arriving at Monrovia, the capital, in February 1920. While on a visit to Nigeria in late 1921 he became gravely ill and died at the British hospital in Lagos on January 8, 1922. He was 57. Due to British law, Young’s body was buried in Lagos, Nigeria for one year before it could be repatriated to the United States for final interment.
Young’s body was exhumed and transported back to the United States, arriving in New York City in late May 1923 to a hero’s welcome. Thousands turned out as Young’s coffin proceeded to Washington. On June 1, 1923, Colonel Charles Young became the fourth soldier honored with a funeral service at Arlington Memorial Amphitheater before burial in Arlington National Cemetery.
Nearly 100 years later, November 1, 2021, Young was posthumously promoted to Brigadier General.
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One more thing before the end of Black History Month.
Two years ago we posted a two-part series on the portrayal of African-Americans in the U.S. military by Hollywood in the 1940s, 50s and early 60s.
If you missed it last time or want to see it again …
You can revisit Part One here.
And Part Two here.
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
SHAKO: Remembering the Deadliest Disaster in Coast Guard History
DESTRUCTION OF THE USS SERPENS.
Members of the U.S. Coast Guard attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the USS Serpens Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery on .January 27, 2023. Seventy-eight years ago, the explosion and destruction of the Navy cargo ship in which 250 were killed was the largest fatal disaster in the history of the Coast Guard. (U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser / Arlington National Cemetery)
Named after the Serpens constellation, the USS Serpens was a Crater-class Navy cargo ship commissioned in May 1943. On the night of January 29, 1945, the freighter was anchored off Lunga Beach, Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, carrying ammunition and other cargo bound for U.S. bases in the Pacific.
While the crew was loading depth charges into the holds, a massive explosion occurred. The explosion destroyed the entire ship, save for its bow, which sank to the bottom. More than two hundred and fifty men lost their lives: 196 Coast Guardsmen, 57 U.S. Army stevedores and a U.S. Public Health Service surgeon, Dr. Harry. Levin. Only two of the 198-man Coast Guard crew aboard that night survived: Seaman 1st Class Kelsie Kemp and Seaman 1st Class George Kennedy. Both awarded the Purple Heart medal.
USS Serpens (Photo U.S. Coast Guard)
The cause of the explosion was never definitively determined. At first report, the incident was attributed to enemy action but a court of inquiry later determined that the cause of the explosion could not be established from the remaining evidence.
Those who died in the Serpens disaster were originally buried at the Army, Navy and Marine Corps Cemetery on Guadalcanal. On June 15, 1949, their remains were re-interred in Section 34 at Arlington National Cemetery.
The USS Serpens Memorial was dedicated on November 16, 1950. The Octagon-shaped memorial is inscribed with the names and ranks of those who perished. At the dedication ceremony, Vice Admiral Merlin O’Neill, Commandant of the Coast Guard, stated, “We cannot undo the past, but we can ensure that these men shall be respected and honored forever.”
The USS Serpens earned one battle star for her World War II service.
The U.S.S. Serpens Monument is dedicated to those who lost their lives when the 14,250-ton ammunition ship exploded off Lunga Baech, Guadacanal on the night of January 29, 1945. (U.S. Army photo by Rachel Larue)
Click here to see the names listed on the monument.
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress, or parade, uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York in the photo.
SHAKO: Black History Month, Fighting to Serve – Part I
TWO FIRSTS:
Andrea Motley Crabtree: The Army’s First Female Deep-Sea Diver
Andrea Motley Crabtree was the only Black person — and the only woman — among eight Soldiers and more than 20 others on Day One of her 1982 class at the U.S. Navy Deep Sea Diving and Salvage School at Panama Beach, Florida. Yes, the Army has divers , too.
The three-month program of instruction awarded the Corps of Engineers’ military occupational specialty (MOS) 00B (short video), to soldiers, who go on to use their training to support underwater maintenance and construction projects among other missions.
To graduate, students were required to pass a health and fitness assessment that disqualified many. Other requirements included being able to rise from a seated position wearing the 198-pound Mark V deep sea dive suit, walking to a ladder, descending into the water and climbing back up. In the end, Crabtree was one of only two Soldiers and nine Sailors to earn the coveted diver badge, according to the Army.
Then-Specialist 5 Andrea Motley Crabtree in the Mark V deep sea dive suit at Fort Rucker, Alabama in 1985. (photo courtesy of retired Master Sgt. Andrea Motley Crabtree/via U.S. Army).
However, the all male Army diver contingent were far from welcoming at her first assignment at Fort Belvoir., Virginia. She was subjected to pranks such as a dead snake in the unit’s freezer, male divers walking around naked in front of her after PT sessions and more dangerous hazing like turning off Crabtree’s air supply underwater.
“For the most part, I could put up with it because I was a diver, I was diving, I was doing what I loved and I was learning,” said Crabtree, the guest speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. observance on January 19, 2023 at Fort Lee in Virginia.
But Crabtree was shipped off to South Korea after only eight months at Fort Belvoir. There she encountered Sergeant 1st Class James P. “Frenchy” Leveille, a renowned master diver. While he could have brought pressure on Crabtree to force her out of diving, Leveille treated her like everyone else, she said.
“As far as I was concerned, she was going to get the same treatment and same opportunity as everybody else,” said Leveille, now a retired sergeant major, “and she did very well for herself. She was a good diver, and she was a good Soldier. That’s the way I rated her.”
However, Crabtree said, higher authorities blocked her rise to attaining the Master Diver Badge. Her orders for advanced schooling in California following the Korea assignment were cancelled; her 300-point Army Physical Fitness Tests were rescored as a male’s; and she later received notice her MOS would be closed to women due to changes in policy.
When she questioned why she was accommodated prior to training and less so afterward, one officer said, “We didn’t think you’d make it.”
Retired Master Sergeant Andrea Motley Crabtree reflects on her struggles as the Army’s first female deep sea diver a soldier at Fort Lee, Virginia onJanuary19, 2023. (Photo by T. Anthony Bell)
Crabtree filed discrimination complaints with her chain of command, the post inspector general, the specialized training branch sergeant major and the Department of the Army inspector general. “They all said there was nothing they could do. I told my command they had won and requested to be relieved from dive duty. I’ve been angry every day since then,” she said.
Crabtree transferred to the Signal Corps and finished out her career as a master sergeant. Click here to see her whole story.
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Cathay Williams: The First and Only Female Buffalo Soldier
In October 1868, Private William Cathay reported for sick call for the second time in three months at Fort Bayard near Silver City, New Mexico. Cathay was nearly two years into his service with the 38th Infantry Regiment, an all black unit formed largely with emancipated slaves in 1866.
However, this time the post surgeon made an astounding discovery. Private Cathay was a woman.The official Army paperwork made no mention of Cathay’s real gender. He was given a disability discharge, citing his “feeble habit. He is continually on sick report…”
Artist’s rendering of Cathay Williams by William Jennings
Cathay’s real name was Cathy Williams. Born into slavery in Missouri, she served as a laundress with the Union Army during the Civil War, according to National Park Service historians. Following the war, she returned to the Saint Louis area and enlisted in the United States Army as a man at Jefferson Barracks on November 15, 1866. Under the pseudonym William Cathay, she served for nearly two years in the 38th Infantry, Company A. Her duty stations included Fort Riley and Fort Hacker, Kansas., Fort Union, New Mexico Territory and Fort Cummings, Colorado Territory. During that time she marched hundreds of miles across prairies and deserts, suffered severe skin rashes, caught smallpox and endured a cholera epidemic.
It is uncertain why she masqueraded as a man to join the Army. She left no diaries or letters. Nor are there any known photographs of her. In an 1876 interview with a St. Louis newspaper, she said, “I wanted to make my own living and not be dependent on relations or friends.”
In 1869, the year after Cathay’s discharge, the 38th Infantry Regiment stationed in Kansas and New Mexico, transferred to Fort McKavett, Texas to merge with another all African-American regiment, the 41st Infantry. Together they formed the new 24th Infantry Regiment. The all-black (only the officers were white) 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments and the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments served for decades on the Western frontier, from the Dakotas the Mexican border. They were called Buffalo Soldiers by Native American tribes. The term eventually became synonymous with all of the African-American regiments formed in 1866. Her service in a legacy 24th Infantry unit is why she is considered the only woman Buffalo Soldier.
After her discharge from the Army, Cathay Williams continued to have numerous medical issues. She married and worked as a cook and laundress. Her last known location was in Trinidad, Colorado, in 1892, when she would have been about 48. Her exact date of death and burial location are unknown, according to the Park Service.
SHAKO: Headgear That Bears Watching
NOT JUST FOR THE GRENADIER GUARDS.
A drum major wearing a bearskin cap leads bandsmen of the Army’s official ceremonial unit, known as “The Old Guard,” to a ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia on January 25, 2023. (U.S. Army photo). Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
Most of us have seen at sometime one of Britain’s five regiments of Foot Guards in their bright red coats and tall black bearskin hats at ceremonies like the Trooping of the Colours or changing of the guard outside Buckingham Palace, but did you know that there are units in all the U.S. armed services where at least one person wears a bearskin cap — the drum majors of ceremonial bands like the “The President’s Own” Marine Band or “The Old Guard” shown above.
The bearskin hat, or cap, first appeared in the 17th Century but became popular in the late 18th and 19th centuries among guard and grenadier units like Napoleon’s Imperial Guard. The tall headgear was supposed to make soldiers look bigger and intimidate the enemy.
“The Thin Red Line,” 1881 by Robert Gibb, depicts the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot at the Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1854, during the Crimean War. (National War Museum, Edinburgh , Scotland via wikipedia). Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
While militia units in the Civil War, mostly in the Union army, wore bearskin hats with their parade uniforms, the tall headgear eventually was used only by the drum major of military marching bands.
The earliest known photographs of an American military band displayed with the Drum Major in full military regalia, including the busby, is the United States Military Academy at West Point -1864 and the United States Marine band in the same year, according to the website Military Music.com.
While the Air Force, Army, Navy and Coast Guard all have official ceremonial bands led by a drum major wearing a bearskin hat, perhaps the most ornately attired is the Marine Corps Band’s drum major. The ornate sash worn across his chest is called a baldric. Embroidered with the Marine Band’s crest and the Marine Corps’ battle colors, it signifies his position as Drum Major of the Marine Corps. He wears a bearskin headpiece and carries a mace, embossed with the battles and campaigns of the Marine Corps, which he uses to signal commands to the musicians.
“The President’s Own” United States Marine Band stands at attention during the Pentagon arrival ceremony for Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on April 21, 2022. (Marine Corps photo by Staff Sergeant) Chase Baran) Click on photo to enlarge image.
SHAKO: Some Marine Corps Hairstory
TALE OF THE PONYTAIL.
For the first time in the more than 100 years since the first women were sworn in as U.S. Marines, the Corps is letting female Marines wear their hair in a ponytail … well, sort of.
In late November, the Marines’ Training and Education Command announced updates to approved female hair styles via Marine Administrative Message 615/22.
The changes include: twists for short hair, an increase in maximum length for medium hair, half-ponytails or up to two half-braids for medium hair, and overall increase in styled length for long hair.
Consistent with current rules, long hair must be secured up (defined as no portion of the hair should be left to fall naturally / unsecured or with exposed ends), except when authorized during non-combat physical training. Medium and long length hair may be worn in an unsecured full ponytail or unsecured braid during non-combat physical training only, according to a Marine Corps press release.
Until the new hair policies were announced, the Marine Corps was the last U.S. armed service to allow women to wear ponytails whilein uniform. The Navy has permitted them since 2018. The Army, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard changed policies for women’s hair in 2021.
Previously, most women Marines with long hair, had to wind it into a very tight bun (photo below), often with the aid of a lot of hairspray. The onerous process also put a lot of tension on the hair which can lead to damage and hair loss.
The updates to the hair regulation also clarify that tightly pulled or slicked back hair is not a requirement, and Marines are encouraged to avoid potentially damaging or harmful products.
Male and female drill instructors with the 1st Recruit Training Battalion of the Recruit Training Regiment, at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, render a salute during a ceremony on December 21, 2022. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Corporal Grace J. Kindred) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
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.BEARDS AND BOOT CAMP.
In another Marine tonsorial issue, a federal court in Washington recently ruled in favor of three Sikh men and overruled the Corps’ requirement that all male recruits in boot camp must receive the traditional extreme haircut and be clean shaven.
Marine Corps recruits practice how to fall during martial arts training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego on January 23, 2023. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Jacob Hutchinson) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
The federal appeals court in the District of Columbia ruled that the Marine Corps cannot deny entry to Sikhs because of their unshorn beards and hair.
The three men, Jaskirat Singh, Milaap Singh Chahal and Aekash Singh, all wanted to serve their country and were qualified to enlist but the Marine Corps told them they could serve only if they shaved before going into basic training. Most Sikh men don’t cut their hair as a sign of their religious commitment, but serving in the military is another aspect of their faith, the lawyer representing the three told NPR.
“They believe, as part of their religious duty, in defending the rights of others,” said attorney Eric Baxter, Sikhs, he noted, “have served for a long time in militaries around the world, including in the United States, with all of their articles of faith in place.”
As part of the British Indian Army, from the late 19th Century, Sikh regiments fought in numerous wars all over the world, including the Second and Third Anglo-Afghan Wars, many campaigns on British India’s North-West Frontier, in World War I on the Western Front, Gallipoli and Mesopotamia and the North African, Italian and Burma campaigns of World War II, earning many gallantry awards and battle honors.
The Indian Army’s Sikh Regiment is said to be its most highly decorated.
The Sikh Regiment marching contingent passes in review at India’s 66th Republic Day Parade in January 2015. (Ministry of Defence, Government of India photo). Click on the photo to enlarge image.
In her December 2022 opinion, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Patrica Millett wrote the men’s Sikh faith requirement to maintain unshorn hair and beards conflicted with the Marines’ standard grooming policy for the 13 weeks of boot camp. The Corps argued that allowing the men to keep their beards would interfere with troop uniformity. The Marine Corps had agreed to accommodate the trio’s religious commitments after basic training was completed.
However, Millet said the Marines had not provided compelling arguments for any safety reasons supporting the policy or that unshorn hair would interfere physically with boot camp training. She also noted recruits were allowed to grow beards for medical reasons, like the skin condition known as shaving bumps, and that the Corps had eased restrictions on tattoos and women’s hairstyles.
The judge granted Jaskirit Singh and Chahal a preliminary injunction allowing them to begin basic training immediately. The ruling also found that Aekash Singh, who plans to enter officer candidate school, should have his related case reconsidered by a federal District Court, The New York Times reported.
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
SHAKO: Marines Have Their First Black Female Two-Star General
ANOTHER FIRST FOR THE MARINES.
The U.S. Marine Corps now has its first black female (two star) major general.
Brig. Gen. Lorna Mahlock, director of Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4), on August 31, 2018. (Department of Defense photo)
The Senate confirmed Major Gen. Lorna Mahlock for promotion on December 15, nine days after President Joe Biden nominated her for promotion along with seven other Marine Corps brigadier generals, according to the Pentagon.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Mahlock, 54, immigrated to Brooklyn, New York at the age of 17 in 1985. She enlisted in the Marine Corps three months later and became an air traffic controller. She became an officer through the Marines’ Enlisted Commissioning Education Program in 1991 after graduating from Marquette University.
Since then she has amassed multiple higher degrees including two masters degrees in Strategic Studies from the Army War College and the Naval Postgraduate School, according to Marine Corps Times.
Mahlock is currently serving as deputy director of Cybersecurity for Combat Support, at the National Security Agency, in Fort Meade, Maryland. Previous posts have included U.S. European Command in German, the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Japan and Marine Tactical Air Command Squadron 38 in Southern California, Stars and Stripes reported.
Then Brigadier Gen. Lorna Mahlock, Chief Information Officer of the Marine Corps, networks after addressing Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s (TMCF) 18th Annual Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C. on October 29, 2018. (U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Lance Corporal Naomi May). Click on photo to enlarge image.
It has been a remarkable year of firsts for women and minorities in the armed services:
Master Chief Information Systems Technician (Submarine) Angela Koogler was named the first female top enlisted sailor on a U.S. Navy submarine, reporting for her new post in late August. Koogler’s appointment as chief of boat on the ballistic missile submarine USS Louisiana is a historic first for the Navy, which only began assigning female officers to submarines in 2011 and female enlisted sailors in 2016.
Also in August, the U.S. Senate confirmed Marine Corps Lieutenant General Michael E. Langley for promotion to the rank of general, becoming the first Black Marine appointed to the rank of four-star general in Marine Corps history. He was also confirmed as head of U.S. Africa Command.
Additional similar achievements this year were identified by Military.com website, noting other firsts for women in the Navy and Marine Corps.
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, cylindrical headgear with a bill or visor worn by soldiers in many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress, or parade, uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
SHAKO (December 5, 2022)
THEY KEPT ‘EM FLYING DURING FRAUGHT EVACUATION
Fifty-one members of the U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, for their actions in Operation Allies Refuge — the 2021 airlift of thousands of civilians from Kabul, Afghanistan.
Distinguished Flying Crosses are lined up prior to an award ceremony at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, where 51 Airmen received medals for heroism during the 17-day evacuation of tens of thousands of refugees from Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sergeant Alex Fox Echols III) Click on photo to enlarge image.
The November 21, 2022 ceremony was the largest of its kind in decades. Among the honorees, Captain Rhea McFarland, a 14th Airlift Squadron C-17 cargo plane pilot, and Captain Leslie Green, a 375th Air Expeditionary Squadron flight nurse, became the first female African Americans to be awarded the DFC in the 96-year history of the award, according to officials of the Distinguished Flying Cross Society.
During Operation Allies Refuge — the largest non-combatant evacuation in American history — each of the 51 Airmen flew into a dangerous environment to evacuate tens of thousands of refugees in just 17 days.
The DFC recipients included pilots, loadmasters, flying crew chiefs, and a flight nurse, according to the Air Force. Most of the 51 recipients were aircrew from the 437th Airlift Wing, who participated in the final U.S. flights in and out of Afghanistan on August 30, 2021. As they entered the airspace surrounding Hamid Karzai International Airport, air crews faced air defense artillery, flares, and heavy machine gun fire, as well as reports of rooftop snipers in the area.
Despite the dangerous conditions, crews successfully landed their aircraft without runway lighting and minimized time on the ground while loading passengers. A compromised airfield meant a risky departure, but they took off in formation with all remaining U.S. military forces accounted for and safely on board, the Air Force said.
Distinguished Flying Cross recipients pose for a photo in front of a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft after receiving their medals. With a total of 51 recipients, the Nov. DFC ceremony was the largest of its kind in decades. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sergeant Alex Fox Echols III). Click on the photo to enlarge image.
During the ceremony, General Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command, also presented DFCs to a 315th Air Wing crew for successfully delivering a baby while in flight. With limited medical equipment and only one trained medic on board, the team delivered the baby and cared for the mother and child while also evacuating 456 other vulnerable Afghans.
The DFC, authorized by congress on July 2, 1926, is the fourth highest award for extraordinary achievement, after the Silver Star Medal and before the Bronze Star Medal. It is also the highest award for heroism while participating in aerial flight.
A list of the 51 airmen receiving the DFC at the November 21 ceremony Joint Base Charleston can be found here.
The awards presented by Minihan are among 96 DFCs and 12 Bronze Stars approved in a September awards board held by U.S. Air Forces Central Command for actions during the chaotic evacuation of non-combatants as Kabul fell to the Taliban last summer. Thirteen American service members — 11 Marines, one Navy ((medical) Corpsman and one Soldier — were killed by a suicide bomber at the airport’s Abbey Gate. Forty-five others were injured and 170 Afghans died in the blast as well.
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress, or parade, uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York in the photo.
4GWAR 
