Black Test Platoon Marker, Airborne & Special Operations Museum, Fayetteville

The marker commemorates the first African Americans allowed to enter training in a US Army Airborne unit during World War Two. The granite marker standing several feet tall has a flat top and beveled front. The top incision has the years of service for the unit and a Master Parachutist Badge. The badge consists of a parachute with wings on each side. Atop the parachute is a star encircled by a wreath. The beveled front lists the members of the first test platoon. During World War Two the US Army fiercely resisted allowing blacks to serve in elite units such as the airborne divisions. Eventually an all-black Service Unit at Ft. Benning, Georgia where airborne troops were trained was allowed to go through the same training regimen as the white parachute volunteers. When authorization came to form an all-black paratroop unit several of these men became the first to join along with volunteers from the 92nd Infantry Division. These men formed the 555th Infantry Company which soon became the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, known to history as the Triple Nickles. The unit did not see combat during the war and was absorbed into the 82nd Airborne Division in 1947.