Combat Multipliers: African-American Soldiers in Four Wars

Abstract

Abstract : This study by Lieutenant Colonel Krewasky A. Salter represents a dedicated effort to draw attention to African-American units and service members over four major wars covering some 170 years. His background in military history and African-American history, along with his numerous professional research, publications, and teaching experiences in both civilian and military institutions, makes him imminently qualified to undertake this project. As a battalion command selectee, Salter has had a remarkable career on the military side as well. He is, therefore, uniquely qualified as a soldier-scholar. Salter has indeed maintained a rock-solid professional reputation in both arenas. Salter was motivated for the right reasons to undertake this venture. It was not intended to cover all aspects of African-American contributions to the freedom of our great nation but to offer a stimulus for more individual and collective examination of the untold and unwritten accounts of African-Americans in combat in the continental United States and overseas. The intent was not only to attract the students of military history but to provide a broad examination of the facts that would equally attract the casual student of history as well as those who consider themselves professional historians, regardless of their ethnic background. This study presents a forum for an intellectual discourse on African- American contributions to the development of America. It will definitely be a great addition to the previously published works by the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) Combat Studies Institute (CSI) and will surely fill an important void in its catalog. The manner in which Lieutenant Colonel Salter imparts the study s results allows readers to make their own conclusions about the benefit of African-Americans to the successes of each battle or campaign experience and to determine if indeed they truly enhanced the outcome of the wars.