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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF "THE FAMOUS 369TH"

On June 2, 1913 a unit to be known as a Negro Regiment of Infantry was constituted. The unit was designated the 15th Infantry Regiment, New York National Guard on June 29, 1916 and mustered into Federal Service at Camp Whitman, N.Y. on July 25, 1917. Redesignated the 369th Infantry Regiment (93rd Division) on March 1, 1918, the unit was sent to France.

The 369th was attached to the French Fourth Army on April 13, 1918 and assigned to Divisional Training School under French command. They went into action at Bois d'Hauza, holding for two months an entire sector against German fire. The 369th also fought at Minaucourt and took part in the great attack at Maison en Champagne which carried them to the Rhine River. Harlem's own, as they were affectionately called, also saw action at Main de Massiges, Butte de Nesil, the Dormois, Sechault, Argonne Forest, Repont, Kuponase, Voges Mountains, the Aisne, the Turbe, Fontain and Bellevue Ridge.

Credited with being the first group of musicians to introduce jazz to Europe, the 369th Regimental Band, led by Lieutenant James Reese Europe, became famous on the battlefronts. Its Drum Major was Sergeant Noble Sissle, later to become well known on Broadway as a singer, conductor and composer. The Band played for both American and French units in camps, in hospitals and for civilians behind the lines.

The first American soldier in World War I to receive the French Croix de Guerre with star and palm was Sergeant Henry Lincoln Johnson, a red-cap from Albany, New York. The battle in which he fought became known as "The Battle of Henry Johnson". With a fellow soldier of the 369th Infantry, Needham Roberts of Trenton, New Jersey, Johnson was on outpost guard duty before dawn on May 14, 1918, when a raiding party of twenty Germans attempted to take Roberts prisoner. Johnson, using the butt end of his rifle and a bolo knife, freed Roberts and, between them killed four Germans, wounded several others and held their post as the rest fled.

Eleven times the 369th was cited for bravery and the entire regiment received the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry under fire. Individually 171 of its officers and enlisted men were decorated with the Croix de Guerre of the Legion of Honor. On February 28, 1919, the 369th was demobilized at Camp Upton, New York.

The 369th had a distinguished record in World War I. It will be remembered for many things, namely:

1. Only volunteer Regiment raised for the war that reached France.
2. Was shipwrecked three times en-route to France.
3. Only regiment in U.S. history to carry a State Flag through the war.
4. First Regiment in the U.S. history to serve as an integral part of a foreign army (French).
5. First Regiment of the Allies to reach the Rhine.
6. Served 191 days in action, longest of any American regiment.
7. Never lost a man by capture and never lost a foot of ground.
8. First combat regiment to arrive home and march up 5th Avenue under the Victory Arch.

On September 6, 1924, the 369th Infantry Regiment was federally recognized as a National Guard Unit, after having been reorganized at the end of World War I. This unit continued to be known as the 369th Infantry Regiment until August 30, 1940, when it was converted to the 369th Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft) Regiment.

The 369th was called into Federal service on January 13, 1941 and transferred from its home base in New York City to Fort Ontario, in Oswego, New York. From Fort Ontario the Regiment was reassigned to Camp Edwards, Mass. In April of 1942 the 369th was reassigned from Camp Edwards to the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade in Los Angeles, California. In June, 1942 the unit was transferred to the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, where it took up the defense of Pearl Harbor. Battery A of the 369th Regiment (the Searchlight Battery) was stationed on the island of Maui.

On December 12, 1943, the 369th Coast Artillery Regiment was reorganized and redesignated. The First Battalion became the 369th Antiaircraft Gun Battalion. The Second Battalion became known as the 870th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion and the Searchlight Battery became the 726th Searchlight Battery.

In 1944 the 870th Battalion was assigned to combat duty with the Tenth Army in Okinawa. The 369th Battalion followed the 870th to Okinawa, but did not engage in combat duty. The  726th Searchlight Battery remained in the Hawaiian Islands.

The following is an official extract of the combat duty reports of the 870th in the Kerama Retto Archipelago in the Okinawa Ryukyus Campaign, taken from the confidential reports of the Antiaircraft Artillery Commander of the Tenth Army:

"After securing the Kerama Retto prior to L Day, the 77th Division left an Infantry Battalion as the garrison force. The battalion was later needed in the line on Okinawa as the battle progressed. The Commanding General, Tenth Army, designated Col. R. W. Argo, Commanding Officer, 44th AAA

[[image - black & white photograph of 12 African-American men]]