555TH PARACHUTE INFANTRY BATTALION [TRIPLE NICKLES] (1944-1947)

CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY 365

555TH PARACHUTE INFANTRY BATTALION [TRIPLE NICKLES] (1944-1947)

During the winter of 1943-1944, the first black paratroopers in army history began training at Fort Benning, Georgia. After several months, the segregated unit was moved to Camp Mackall, North Carolina, where it was reorganized and redesignated as Company A of the newly activated 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion. Unlike other African American infantry units officered by whites, the 555th was entirely black since six black officers also completed jump training.

By late 1944, the first platoon of Triple Nickles was fully trained, combat-ready, and alerted for European duty. The men were anxious to fight Hitler’s Nazis in Europe or the Japanese in the Pacific. Instead, racial military politics and changing war conditions kept the paratroopers home and away from the war they had been trained to fight.

In early 1945, the Triple Nickles had received secret orders from the War Department called “Operation Firefly.” They were sent to Pendleton, Oregon, assigned to the 9th Services Command, and trained by the Forest Service to become history’s first military smokejumpers. They were specifically designated to respond to Japanese balloon bombs.

On May 5, 1945, a Japanese incendiary balloon explosion killed the pregnant wife of a local minister and five young members of their church while on a Sunday picnic near Bly, Oregon. The Army kept the details of the incident a secret as they didn’t want members of the public to panic.

During that year’s fire season, the Triple Nickles made more than 1,200 individual jumps and helped control at least 28 major fires although none were believed to have been caused by the Japanese. 

The paratroopers suffered numerous injuries but only one fatality: the day of Malvin Brown’s death, August 6, 1945, was also the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Both events made the front page of the local newspaper in Roseburg, Oregon but the pioneer death was barely noticed by comparison and soon forgotten.

In December 1947, the Triple Nickles were deactivated and their personnel were assigned to other Army units. One group, the 2nd Airborne Ranger Company, became the first black unit to make a combat jump during the Korean War. Ultimately, the Triple Nickles served in more airborne units, in peace and in war, than any other parachute group in history.

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