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Americans in the Legion 1914-1917

Rapace

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Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this. Note that the Genet mentioned has nothing to do with writer Jean Genet (who was French) who also served in the Legion in the 30s and was recently discussed on the board.
Interesting to note there are several names which sound French. Maybe some Americans who decided to fight for their ancestors' country before the USA officially entered WW1. Interesting also to note the presence of black soldiers, may be because they were not allowed into the US Army at that time (?).
One anecdote : the « place des Etats-Unis » where the monument is situated was originally named « place de Bitche », after the name of a small town in NE France that resisted the Prussian invasion during the 1870 war. The name was changed because it was sounding 'strange' in English...
 

BobW

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Bonjour Peter,

I spent nearly an hour at the site. It's great reading.

Saluations,
BobW
 

BobW

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Bonjour Patrick,

At the time, black soldiers did serve in the US Army. However, they served in segregated units with harsher living conditions and some of the worst assignments.

The US Marine Corps had a different policy. The USMC was all white until June 1942. The newly created WWII unit, a 900 man defense battalion, was segregated.

Full racial integration of the US Armed Forces did not occur until President Truman ordered the change. Generally speaking, integration did not occur until after the Korean War.

There are some technical exceptions to all of the above that military historians get involved with, but basically, ....the US military was segregated.

Saluations,
BobW
 

Rapace

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Thanks for the precision. I thought black people were banned from the US army till after WW2 (except of course the famous 'Buffalo soldiers' during the Civil War).
 
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