America's Military Population

Race

While the early militias and the Continental Army were predominantly white, blacks, American Indians, and Asians served in various capacities for years, although they were often separated from the white soldiers. American Indians served in the military beginning in colonial times. They were segregated in separate units as scouts and auxiliaries during the 19th century, but by the Spanish-American War in 1898 they were serving throughout the Army despite political pressure to continue their segregation. The major exceptions to this pattern were communications units-the famous American Indian Code Talkers-recruited in the two World Wars. American Indians helped convert their unwritten native languages into virtually unbreakable codes for transmitting sensitive information.

The first Asian or Pacific people to serve in the U.S. Army were the Philippine Scouts, who were organized in company-sized units of about 100 soldiers starting in the late 19th century, and who remained a separate unit until World War II. Late in the 19th century, the Navy opened the Messmcn's and Steward's Branch-previously reserved for African Americans-to Asians. Filipino messmen outnumbered African Americans in the Messman's and Steward's Branch by the beginning of World War I.

The Navy halted Filipino enlistments in the 1930s, resuming them only after the Philippines gained independence in 1946. Filipinos were recruited into the only racially segregated branch of the Navy. The Navy had briefly experimented with segregated ships in World War I-the entire crew of one destroyer was from the Philippines and another was from Guam-but the experiment was abandoned in 1920 in part because it was difficult to recruit all the specialties and ranks required for a ship from a limited population.

During World War II, most Japanese American men who had been drafted into the Army, and all those who volunteered during the war, were segregated in the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. These units were kept out of the Pacific theatre so they would not be fighting against Japanese forces, but both units distinguished themselves in combat in Europe.

The War Department allowed up to 500 second-generation Japanese American women to join the Women's Army Corps during World War II, with a smaller number joining the Army Medical Corps.15 After the war, Japanese Americans were integrated into all branches of the U.S. armed services.

Black men have served in every war that America ever fought, but African Americans were not integrated into the military as rapidly as American Indians or Asian Americans.16 Although they held lower status than white soldiers, thousands of black men fought in the American Revolutionary War and in the naval forces in the war against France from 1798 to 1800. In the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson used free black men in Louisiana to help defend New Orleans from the British. But blacks were generally not allowed to serve during peacetime.

Congress authorized the service of black men in the Union forces during the Civil War. Blacks served in racially segregated units and accounted for about 10 percent of Army personnel. In the Navy, blacks served on integrated crews, although primarily at the lowest ranks and in menial jobs, making up about a quarter of Navy personnel. At the end of the war, Congress established four black regiments-the 24th and 25th Infantry, and the 9th and 10th Cavalry-which represented about 10 percent of Army personnel.