Event in Pendleton honors nation’s first Black paratrooper battalion, the Triple Nickles

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Government: Oregon Public Broadcasting

Event in Pendleton honors nation’s first Black paratrooper battalion, the Triple Nickles

An event in Pendleton, Oregon, on Saturday honors the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, also known as the Triple Nickles.They were formed during WWII when President Franklin D. Roosevelt, facing pressure from Black cabinet members, paid a visit to the Army Airborne School at Fort Benning in Georgia.“There were no Black airborne troops in the Army at that point, in 1944,” said Bob Bartlett, a retired educator from Eastern Washington, who has sp…