In Touch: U.S. Army 761st Tank Battalion
By Betty Miller Buttram
FWIS Contributing Writer
The U.S. Army 761st Tank Battalion was established in March 1942 at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, as a segregated battalion of African American enlisted soldiers under the leadership of white officers. The Black soldiers faced prejudice and racial barriers at training camps, such as Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, and Camp Hood (later renamed Fort Hood) during World War II. The unit’s unique emblem was the head of a black panther and the motto of these soldiers who became known as the Black Panthers of the 761st Tank Battalion was “Come out fighting.”
The battalion landed at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France on October 10, 1944. Included in the unit were six white officers, thirty Black officers and 676 Black soldiers assigned to General George S. Patton’s U.S. Third Army.
Ruben Rivers was born in 1921 in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. When World War II broke out, Rivers decided that he would fight for his country even though his country did not think that Black soldiers were good enough. The policy of the U.S. military at that time in 1940s’ was of segregating Black soldiers into support and service units as cooks, truck drivers, dock workers loading and unloading cargo from ships, orderlies and other noncombative jobs. Only five Black commissioned officers served in the U.S. Army in 1940 and three of them were chaplains. Rivers joined the U.S. Army in 1942 and eventually became a Staff Sergeant and a Tank Commander with the Black Panthers U. S. Army 761st Tank Battalion. At Guebling, France on November 19, 1944, the 761st were directed to hold the line in fighting the Germans until reinforcements arrived. Rivers, suffering from an infected wound, refused to stand down. He stayed in his tank and along side another tank commander, they diverted the German soldiers long enough for the Americans soldiers exposed in the open battle to withdraw and regroup. A high explosive shell hit Rivers’ tank and a second shell finished the job, striking the gun mounting platform and almost ripping Rivers’ body into two parts. Prior to that battle, Rivers had already won a Silver Star for bravery. In 1997, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. On June 9, 2009, a stretch of Highway 9 running through Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, where Ruben Rivers grew up, was named U.S. Army SSG Ruben Rivers Highway in his honor.
Tank Commander Sergeant Warren G.H. Crecy was born in Corpus Christi, Texas on January 4, 1923. He graduated from high school several months prior to the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. On April 12, 1942, Crecy enlisted in the U.S. Army at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Crecy was chosen for armored crew training for a small group of African Americans soldiers. After basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Crecy returned to Texas as a member of the 761st Tank Battalion at Camp Hood for advanced training. In August of 1944, the 761st received the news of their deployment to Europe and landed at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France on October 10th. The 761st were the first African American armored unit to see combat. On November 9th, Crecy and his fellow tankers rolled into battle and went up against an imposing enemy in northern France. After his tank was destroyed, he commandeered a jeep equipped with a .30 caliber machine gun and fired at the advancing Germans, forcing them to withdraw. Crecy went on to perform more combat heroics during the European battles and was nicknamed by his fellow soldiers as “The Baddest Man in the 761st”. He was given a battlefield commission and promoted to Second Lieutenant in May 1945. After the World War II, Crecy served with the U.S. Army for 22 years and was given a medical retirement with the rank of Major. Crecy passed away in 1976 and laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. In his hometown of Corpus Christi, a street was named for him at the Naval Air Station.
In 1942, Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army calvary unit at Fort Riley, Kansas. Robinson and several other Black soldiers applied for admission to an Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Fort Riley. After many protests, they were finally admitted, and Robinson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in January 1943. After receiving his commission, Robinson was reassigned to Fort Hood, Texas, where he joined the 761st Tank Battalion. On July 6, 1944, Robinson was scheduled for a physical examination at a hospital about thirty miles from Fort Hood to determine if an old ankle injury was serious enough for the Army to waive responsibility should he go overseas with the 761st unit. Robinson boarded the bus traveling back to Fort Hood and the bus driver ordered him to the back of the bus. He refused. At the end of the line, the driver summoned the military police who arrested Robinson. Court-martial charges were put forward by the arresting military police officers. Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Paul L. Bates refused to consider the charges. The post commander transferred Robinson to the 758th Tank Battalion whose commander signed the insubordination court martial order. Robinson was acquitted of insubordination in August 1944, but the court-martial proceedings prohibited his overseas deployment with the 761st and he never saw combat action.
There are more stories of these brave men of the 761st Tank Battalion that can be found in browsing today’s world of the internet. The men of the 761st Tank Battalion have received individuals’ awards, including one Medal of Honor, 11 Silver Stars and about 300 Purple Hearts.
In 1998, the 761st Tank Battalion, currently deactivated, received a Presidential Unit citation which is the highest award that a unit can received.
At a ceremony held at Fort Hood, Texas on November 10, 2005, and attended by surviving veterans, a monument was dedicated to the 761st Tank Battalion as a permanent tribute to these soldiers.
Veterans Day will soon be upon us. Stay In Touch. There is another story to be told.
