|
|
|
Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr.
| Brig.
Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. |
After A Slow Rise Through The Ranks, Davis
Became U.S. Military's First Black Flag Officer
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Writer
On Oct. 25, 1940, Benjamin O. Davis Sr. became the first African American
to hold star rank in the U.S. Army and in the armed forces. He was promoted
to brigadier general, temporary -- a situation with which he was all
too familiar, as his promotions to major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel
had all originally been "temporary." Such was the situation for black
officers in Davis's day -- all two or three of them.
Fortunately for today's 10,000-plus African-American Army officers,
Davis was a patient man. Born in Washington in 1877, he first entered
the military as a temporary first lieutenant on July 13, 1898, during
the Spanish-American War. Mustered out in 1899, he enlisted as a private
just six months later. Within two years, he had been commissioned a
second lieutenant of cavalry in the regular Army.
Davis's service as an officer with the famed "Buffalo Soldiers" regiment
in the Philippines and on the Mexican border was exemplary, yet his
subsequent assignments as a college ROTC instructor and as a National
Guard advisor were far from the front lines. All of his postings, including
duty as the military attache to Liberia, were designed to avoid putting
Davis in command of white troops or officers.
Because these were not high profile jobs, Davis rose slowly through
the ranks, earning his colonel's eagle only in 1930. In 1938, he received
his first independent command, the 369th National Guard Infantry Regiment.
When Davis was promoted to brigadier, some saw it as a political action
from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
However, as advisor on race relations in the European theater during
World War II, Davis, as his Distinguished Service Medal citation relates,
showed "initiative, intelligence and sympathetic understanding" while
conducting investigations, bringing about "a fair and equitable solution
to ... problems which have since become the basis of far-reaching War
Department policy."
Davis's slow, steady, and determined rise in the Army paved the way
for countless minority men and women -- including his son Benjamin O.
Davis Jr., a West Point graduate who in 1954 became only the second
African-American general in the U.S. military and the first in the Air
Force.
|
|
|
|
|
