Word: messmen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...slave, was the first man shot in the Boston Massacre, the prelude to the Revolutionary War, and some 186,000 Negroes marched with the blue in the Civil War. Yet they were nearly always segregated and distrusted in combat. In World War I, the Navy used them only as messmen, while the Marine Corps excluded them altogether. In World War II, though a few Negro units distinguished themselves in combat, Negroes in all the services were mostly confined to supply, engineering and transportation duties. Though President Truman officially integrated all forces in 1948, there were some segregated units as late...
...training." This was the case with him during the first World War, when, as a licensed radio operator with a white friend for the greatly needed post of radio operator in the Navy. He was told that "the Navy doesn't make any provisions for colored men-except as messmen." John Dunn spent the war as a reservist while his friend served as a wireless operator...
...Negroes (12% of its strength), has abolished all segregation in basic training, but carefully divides the troops thereafter into white and Negro units. ¶ The Navy has about 20,000 Negroes-3.3% of its strength; more than half of them are assigned to the Stewards' branch (cooks, messmen) in which there are only six whites; there are but 27 Negro officers in the Navy, including one lone Annapolis graduate.* ¶ The Air Force, which has the best record on abolishing segregation, has broken up its all-Negro fighter squadrons, but it still segregates troops at such big Southern fields...
...account might have added that the gun crew, volunteers all and, according to U.S. Navy tradition, messmen, had emptied the entire contents of their "ready box" (32 shells) into the sub in one minute. Exclaimed a Coast Guard officer: "Those boys are one of the best gun crews you ever...
Exempted by draft boards when they enroll in the Merchant Marine Naval Reserve "for inactive duty," they spend five weeks in preliminary training. Then they are given eight weeks' specialized training as seamen, firemen, water tenders, oilers, messmen, cooks, bakers, clerks and pharmacist's mates. Trainees are taught to handle themselves in a lifeboat, spend a total of 90 hours on lifeboat drill alone...