I hope all military veterans and their families enjoyed the recent Memorial Day celebrations honoring men and women that served their country in the Armed Services.
My father, Lucius Gantt, was a United States Army Technical Sergeant in the 949 Air Engineering Squadron.
There were no books written or movies made about his military service or contributions and my Dad never sat down and told me about his war time exploits.
He, like many other, Black servicemen and women, was honorably discharged but felt he was treated dishonorably.
You see, I never knew anything about my father’s service until after his death. His brother, my uncle, Arthur Gantt told me my Dad served in an all Black unit, “The Tuskegee Airmen”!
Lucius Gantt was an aircraft mechanic that made it possible for the Black airmen to fly the rickety, handed down planes that flew historic missions that you hear about and watch movies about.
After his military discharge, he and the other Black aircraft mechanics had to find any kind of work that they could while other less talented and non-Blacks were quickly hired by commercial airlines, got paid high salaries and had successful careers.
My Dad’s life encouraged me to be a soldier!
I was never in the United States Armed Forces but I have always been a soldier in God’s Army!
The Bible says in 2 Timothy, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”
Once I was able to witness Satanic forces all around me, my family and my community, I was compelled to become a member of God’s Army to fight devilish, evil and wicked individuals and ideas wherever they presented themselves!
Instead of fighting for colonialism, exploitation, oppression, oil, minerals and money I decided as a very young man to fight for equal rights, justice, economic independence and political power and respect.
I am not only a Christian Soldier, I am also in a long line of Buffalo Soldiers”.
Buffalo Soldiers originally were members of the U.S. 10th Calvary Regiment U.S. of the United States Army, formed on September 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This nickname was given to the “Negro Calvary” by the Native American tribes they fought in the Indian Wars. The term eventually became synonymous with all of the African American regiments formed in 1866.
In September 1867, Private John Randall of Troop G of the 10th Cavalry Regiment was assigned to escort two civilians on a hunting trip. The hunters suddenly became the hunted when a band of 70 Cheyenne warriors swept down on them. The two civilians quickly fell in the initial attack and Randall’s horse was shot out from beneath him. Randall managed to scramble to safety behind a washout under the railroad tracks, where he fended off the attack with only his pistol and 17 rounds of ammunition until help from the nearby camp arrived. The Cheyenne beat a hasty retreat, leaving behind 13 fallen warriors. Private Randall suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder and 11 lance wounds, but recovered. The Cheyenne quickly spread word of this new type of soldier, “who had fought like a cornered buffalo; who like a buffalo had suffered wound after wound, yet had not died; and who like a buffalo had a thick and shaggy mane of hair.
Just like Private Randall, I’ve been hated, attacked, battered, bruised, rejected, fired and even given up for dead but I keep fighting and I never give up just like the Buffalo Soldiers did in days of old!
If you want to be a soldier today, don’t fight for imperialism, don’t fight for gang colors, don’t fight for mob or dope boy territory, don’t fight over the “cat”, fight for what is right, fight for your family, your community and for yourself!
I respect the veterans of all wars, foreign and domestic, that fight against devilish perpetrators, both foreign and domestic!
(Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net. And, if you want to,“Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook.)
Lucius is a contributing columnist to NNPA newspapers around the nation, and the author of “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” available on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.