Early Life and Military Service
Edsel Allen Jett was born on March 4, 1919, in Bastrop County, Texas to George and Eva Jett. He graduated from Blackshear High School in 1936. In January of 1941, at the age of 21, Jett enlisted in the United States Army. He was sent to Fort Huachuca in Arizona to complete basic training.

Fort Huachuca
In 1877, the United States Army established Fort Huachuca as a military outpost to protect nearby settlers and travelers in the southeast Arizona area. It became a permanent installation a few years later and continued on as an active post because of its proximity to the Mexican border, as well as its strategic placement on high ground.

For several decades, starting in the 1890s, thousands of Black troops serving in the United States Military were either sent for training at Fort Huachuca or stationed at the camp. It was home to the “Buffalo Soldiers,” the all-Black 9^th and 10^th Cavalry Regiments formed after the Civil War. When the U. S. Army led by Brigadier General John J. Pershing went into Mexico in 1916, the 10^th Cavalry stationed at Huachuca took part in this expedition. During World War I, this regiment was also instrumental in guarding the Mexican border from a potential German threat.

During World War II, the 92^nd and the 93^rd Infantry Divisions were stationed at Fort Huachuca. Between 1941 and 1945, approximately 30,000 soldiers and personnel, including the all-Black units of 92^nd and 93^rd, were sent to Huachuca before shipping out overseas. In 1942, the Mountain View Black Officers Club was set up at the base and became the first official recreational center for Black officers to go during off-duty hours to dine, hear music, and enjoy other entertainment.

On March 3^rd, 1941, shortly after arriving at Fort Huachuca, Edsel Jett was made Sergeant, and later that year was promoted to Staff Sergeant. His final promotion came in October of 1942 when Edsel became a Technical Sergeant.

The 99th Fighter Squadron
While many of the details of Edsel’s military career remain unknown, his record shows that he was one of the Tuskegee Airmen and served with the 99^th Fighter Squadron. Formerly known as the 99^th Pursuit Squadron, this unit was the first all-Black fighter squadron in the U.S. Army Air Corps (later the U.S. Air Force).

The 99^th was formed in 1941 and trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Alabama. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., who eventually became the first Black general in the U.S. Air Force, Edsel and the rest of the 99^th were deployed overseas in the spring of 1943. They were en route to North Africa when, on July 27, 1943, Edsel Jett drowned attempting to save the life of another soldier. He was twenty-four years old.

During the war, the 99^th was awarded two Presidential Unit Citations for tactical air support and aerial combat. In addition to seeing action in North Africa, this squadron also fought in the Mediterranean Theater. In 1944, the 99^th and three other fighter squadrons joined forces and formed the 332^nd Fighter Group. This unit distinguished itself repeatedly throughout World War II and is remembered for their tenacity and skill.

Early Life
Herman Eugene Molen was born in Merit, Texas, on August 14, 1923. He graduated from Merit High School in 1941 and went on to attend Decatur Baptist College. He was studying to be a minister and had already been ordained when, in 1942, he decided to leave school and join the war.

That May, Molen enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He completed basic training in Mineral Wells, Texas, and later received his diploma from the Harlingen Army Gunnery School. Molen continued his training in Sebring, Florida, at a B-17 pilot school. Next, Molen went to Spokane, Washington, for crew training before finally heading out to Europe.

Military Service
At just under twenty years old, Molen was sent overseas in April of 1943. He was assigned to the 305th Bombardment Group under the command of Curtis LeMay. Molen initially spent time in England with this unit, on average flying a couple of missions a month.

On July 4, 1943, Molen and three others in his crew were hit by enemy fire. During the melee, Molen, a ball turret gunner, was able to shoot down at least two German aircraft. Although he sustained injuries, he only spent ten days in a hospital recovering before resuming his duties.

Schweinfurt
During World War II, the city of Schweinfurt in Eastern Bavaria was a major industrial player in the production of ball bearings—key parts found in equipment such as tanks, aircraft, vehicles, etc. It is estimated that the five factories in Schweinfurt were responsible for two-thirds of all ball bearings manufactured in Germany. As a result, the Allied Forces were determined to neutralize Schweinfurt’s production output and deal the Nazis a significant blow. By 1943, it was decided that aerial attacks over Schweinfurt would go ahead in an attempt to destroy ball bearing factories and strike at the German war machine.

Early in the morning of October 14, 1943, Herman Molen was pulled from his barracks and told he was being sent on a mission. Once Molen was on the aircraft, he was told the crew would be flying over Schweinfurt. Earlier in the year, Molen was part of another team that had aborted a mission over France due to engine trouble on the way to the German city. This time, however, the second Schweinfurt Raid went ahead. Black Thursday, as the day came to be known, saw 291 B-17 Flying Fortresses launched into Germany.

The results for both Molen and the other Americans involved in Black Thursday were disastrous. The Army Air Force experienced their greatest loss to date. About 600 crewmen were either killed or taken as prisoners of war, and just under eighty aircraft were lost or damaged.

During the air raid, Molen’s aircraft was hit twice. The pilot bailed out, leaving the rest of the crew in the hands of his copilot. Eventually, Molen and his crew followed suit and jumped out of the plane. Of the ten crewmembers, nine survived and made it safely to land. The navigator injured his leg and was unable to walk, so Molen carried him.

POW Camp
Once on German soil, Molen and his men were surrounded by locals and taken to a German airbase as prisoners of war. The next day, they were transported to Frankfurt for questioning and later to Stalag 17, a POW camp in Austria where Molen spent nineteen months.

Molen attempted to escape three times. The first attempt was on Easter Sunday of 1944. Molen, along with a group of others, cut through barbed wire and made it out of one area of the camp, but were found a week later. A second attempt at freedom saw Molen and his cohorts volunteer as stretcher bearers for the hospital at the POW camp. They tried talking their way out of Stalag 17 but were soon found out.

Molen succeeded in getting out of the camp on his third escape attempt. He and others bribed guards so they would be sent out on work detail. The ploy was successful, and Molen’s crew was put on sewer duty in a nearby town. The group was able to escape with the help of a civilian underground network. Molen and his friends traveled to a new house each night, where different people sympathetic to the Allied cause agreed to hide them. Although they made it as far as Yugoslavia, Molen’s group encountered an undercover German officer and was recaptured.

After this episode, Molen was put into solitary confinement for ten days. Stalag 17 was then closed, and the Germans forced the POWs to go on a 123-mile march through Austria. Eventually, they encountered American troops that liberated the prisoners of Stalag 17, setting Molen and his fellow POWs free.

Life After WWII
Herman Molen’s military career did not end in 1945. In fact, Molen would go on to serve his country twice more before resuming civilian life. After spending some months in a hospital in Houston, Molen decided he wanted to go back into the Air Force. Molen fought in the Korean War and later served in Vietnam, making for a total of thirty-two years in the military.

Early Life and Nursing Career
Helen A. McCullough was born on July 28, 1913, in Pratt, Kansas. McCullough graduated from high school in 1930 and went on to work for a local retail store. In 1938, she enrolled in the nursing program at the Baylor University College of Medicine. McCullough graduated in 1941 and began her career working as Assistant Head Nurse to the Night Supervisor at Baylor University Hospital.

Military Service
In 1942, McCullough entered the Army Nurse Corps at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, and was given the rank of Second Lieutenant. She then joined the 56^th Evacuation Hospital, a Baylor University, Dallas-affiliated army medical unit that was sent to North Africa in 1943. McCullough’s unit also spent time in Italy, where they served with the 5^th Army in Cassino and Anzio. During this time, McCullough was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant.

Army Nurse Corps
The Army Nurse Corps was formed in 1901. Prior to the attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941, there were less than 1,000 nurses serving in the United States Army Nurse Corps. In the months after the attack, given the nursing shortage in the military, the Army and Navy began actively recruiting women by providing incentives for joining the war effort, offering subsidized education among other benefits.

At this time, only women were allowed to join the Nurse Corps. It wasn’t until the 1950s that men were admitted. Early in the war, the Nurse Corps was made up of predominately white women, and it was not uncommon for qualified Black nurses to be turned away because of discriminatory practices in the U.S. Military. In 1943, the Nurse Training Act, also known as the Bolton Act, was passed which contained a non-discriminatory clause. Despite this, many Black women were still turned away from nursing programs, and ultimately only made up a very small percentage of the Army Nurse Corps during WWII.

By the end of the war, the number of nurses serving in the Army Nurse Corps swelled to more than 59,000. Thanks to their tireless efforts, it is estimated that only approximately four percent of the men who were tended to on the field or evacuated, died from their wounds.

56th Evacuation Hospital
Evacuation Hospitals during World War II were mobile units stationed near battles that helped treat and evacuate the wounded. Their proximity to the front lines meant that doctors and nurses in these hospitals were often working under dangerous conditions. This was the case with the 56^th Evacuation Hospital, which during 1944, was stationed in Anzio, Italy close to the fighting between the Germans and Allied forces.

On March 29, 1944, Helen McCullough was with the 56^th on the beachhead of Anzio, when the hospital was hit by an air raid. Although the 56^th had seen a few air raids in the surrounding area, on this occasion the hospital itself was hit directly. The attack resulted in McCullough sustaining an injury to her lung from a bomb fragment. However, she survived and was later awarded a Purple Heart for her service.

From 1942 to 1945, the 56^th Evacuation Hospital treated over 73,000 individuals, including soldiers, prisoners of war, and civilians.

Early Life
Frank Junior Collins was born in Breckenridge, Texas, on June 19, 1918. He attended Breckenridge High School and played football for the Breckenridge Buckaroos. During his junior year, Collins transferred to Allen Military Academy. After graduation, he attended junior college at Texas Technical College, and was later accepted into Texas Wesleyan College where he earned his bachelor’s degree.

A Nation at War
On July 30, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that American troops would be sent into French North Africa to provide support for the Allied cause – an operation that would eventually be known as Operation Torch. Commanded by Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of the aims of Operation Torch was to provide much needed relief to the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front by forcing the Germans and Italians to shift their attention to the combined efforts of the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa.

Pilot’s Training
In 1942, Collins enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Kelly Field, Texas. He completed his primary training in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, did his basic training in Sherman, Texas, and received his pilot’s wings at Foster Field, Texas. Collins spent three additional months doing advanced flying training on the East Coast, where he was given a First Lieutenant’s commission.

Military Service
British and American troops landed in Morocco and Algiers on November 8, 1942. In January of 1943, Frank Collins was deployed to North Africa and joined the 319th Fighter Squadron of the 325th Fighter Group. He participated in raids over Essen, Sardinia, Pantelleria, Tunisia, and parts of Sicily. Collins flew a Curtiss P-40, naming his first plane “Lula” after his mother and another one the “Texas Tornado.”

By 1943, Collins was a flying ace, having shot down multiple enemy aircraft during the war. He was promoted to the rank of Captain and that same year was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross. For distinguished service in North Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe, and the Pacific, he was also awarded the Silver Star, an Air Medal with twenty-three oak leaf clusters, and a Purple Heart. The latter he received after being wounded on a mission in Japan.

On July 12, 1945, Collins was hit and ejected from his aircraft. He spent two days in open water after which he was captured by the enemy and spent the remainder of the war a prisoner of the Japanese. Once Collins was released back to the U.S., he spent some months recuperating in the hospital before he resumed his Air Force career.

Frank Collins retired as a U.S. Air Force Brigadier General in 1967. He died on December 13, 2000.