In a column rife with breezy zingers, but woefully short on historical knowledge, the always disgusting Ann Coulter writes:
Today's military features "victim advocates" and sensitivity training facilitators, the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services personnel and a million other goo-goo positions. How did we ever take the shores of Normandy without a phalanx of "sensitivity training" counselors?
This is the same Coulter recently feted by GOProud. Do they have no self-respect at all? The answer is that we stormed the shores of Normandy with an army that mostly prohibited black soldiers from serving in combat roles, and kept them in all black units. Only in 1948 did Harry Truman sign Executive Order 9981, desegregating the army. Due to racism, no Medals of Honor were awarded to black World War II veterans at the time. Decades later a military review resulted in seven black WWII veterans receiving the award, though only one was still alive.
Prejudice in the World War II era, and the resulting decision to organize units by race rather than efficiency, hurt the war effort. Certainly today's integrated army better takes advantage of its black soldiers and their talents. Perhaps if there were more racially sensitive Americans in the 1930s, an integrated military freed from the inefficiencies of segregated units would've taken Normandy with fewer casualties.