Blacks in US submarines?

Im not sure, it sounds familiar..... But most likely i dont think so. Before the war act (aah its name is slipping my tongue)in 1947 it was still perfectly ok to have the "Seperate but equal". I doubt it anything pre-1947

 

I have no sources on black sailors, but do know that some were on submarines, but I think just for galley duty.

 

I know for certain that blacks served on major capital ships as stewards. There was very limited room on submarines so there would not be enough room to carry people who were simply stewards (also lt commanders and commanders were sub captains and the hardly rate a steward).

 

When did blacks start to help the ship out with direct functions with the ship, like not gulley duty and crap? I thought I heard somewhere they weren't allowed to use the computers and such on board but I am not quite sure if that is true.

 

hmmm well i'm not sure!
but i do know that by the end of the war there were blacks on ships serving more duties than just cooks and janitors and minor things like that. However i don't know them doing anything more than manning anti aircraft guns and such. Nothing that was REAL technical.
However my guess is that when the armed forces were fully integrated blacks did the same duties as anyone else. Of course that happened after the war ended.

 

Sorry that my information is choppy, at best, but I am reasonably certaint that there was a black man serving aboard the USS Intrepid during WWII that rec'd (a Navy Cross?) a decoration for his service during a kamikaze attack!!

I know that I have the information on a video regarding the USS INTREPID and will attempt to post the "correct" info here soon!

 

Hi Gang!! Got a message from my uncle today regarding blacks on US subs in WWII.

I asked him if blacks served on subs and were they combatants:

"The answer is yes to both of your questions. True, they were stewards mates but everyone on a submarine is a combatant. One's duty assignment is always secondary to the role of combatant. After the war, while I was the executive officer on SENNET, we had a steward, Willie James, who was reputed to have made a 73 day patrol and served eggs for breakfast every day and never used the same recipe twice."

No doubt he was a crew favorite!!!

 

"I'm the boss.. need the info":
http://www.philsch.k12.pa.us/it/EC/IMedia/USSMason.html
http://www.hnn.navy.mil/Archives/000128/cmdrcol.htm

 

Truman integrated the armed forces in 1947, the same year the Air Force was created. Until then in the Navy blacks could ONLY be stewards. In the Army whole units were created and blacks were kept segregated from white units. Never heard of the Tuskegee Airmen? There was no air force of course, it was part of the army and the Marine Corps was (and still is) part of the USN.

 

Thats true, they could only be Stewards, but also HAD to be trained to do another job like: radio operator, sonar operator, pill-pusher etc.

Sadly in most cases, they never had a chance to do the other duty.

 

watching run silent,run deep.there is a black sailor in the crew.curious if blacks served on subs in ww2.

 

As an anthropologist, the era did not allow blacks to be confined with whites such as Submarines. The studies of the 30's to prevent blacks equality in the military were false and politically and "grant" enhanced. It would be like females onboard submarines. In the REAL world there are to many controversies, problems not to mention temptations.
Movies of that time were made after 1947, after equality in the military became law.

 

View attachment 16839

Wardroom of USS Cero July-Auguat 1943
From Wikipedia "USS Cero (SS-225), a Gato-class submarine, was the first submarine and second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the cero mackerel, a large food and game fish of the mackerel family, found chiefly in the West Indies.
Cero's keel was laid down on 24 August 1942 by Electric Boat Co., Groton, CT. She was launched 4 April 1943 (sponsored by Mrs. D. E. Barbey) and commissioned 4 July 1943, Commander David C. White (Class of 1927) in command."



Photo from this site:


African-Americans and the U.S. Navy - Images

 

On the contrary, blacks served as cooks and stewards in submarines just as they did on surface ships, and they bunked in the same compartments as their white shipmates.

One anthropological curiousity, sub skippers sometimes assigned black crewmen as night lookouts due to a belief that they had superior night vision.

 

They were stewards and cooks, Some acted as noght look outs as Carronade pointed out and a few even acted as loaders for the deck gun.