Lessons in Black History: February 28, 2015

Captain Ronald Radcliffe won the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Cross for his heroic service in the army during the Vietnam War. Part of the 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Aviation Brigade, Radcliffe was awarded the Silver Cross on February 20, 1972 and the Distinguished Service Cross on April 28, 1972.

Captain Ronald A. Radcliffe was serving as Pilot of a Light Observation Scout helicopter with Troop F, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Aviation Brigade, during a rescue mission in Viet Nam on February 20th, 1972. Radcliffe received a call for assistance when another scout helicopter from his Troop was shot down in the notoriously dangerous mushroom area near the Cu Chi, Republic of Vietnam. Captain Radcliffe began making low-level passes to mark the crash site with smoke grenades. He immediately began receiving machinegun and small arms fire, sustaining several hits in the aircraft. When his helicopter developed a severe vibration, he was forced to break station to check out his aircraft for damages.

Ascertaining that the helicopter was still flyable, Captain Radcliffe ordered his two crew members to stay behind. He immediately took off and continued to mark the crash site so ARVN recondos could be inserted to secure the area. After this was completed Radcliffe landed his own helicopter in the landing zone to extract the sole survivor of the crash. At the same time, he vectored a utility helicopter into the landing zone to extract the bodies of the two dead crew members. During the whole sequence of events, Captain Radcliffe flew through the heavily defended area approximately forty to fifty times, remaining under fire approximately 80% of the time. His crew killed an estimated ten to twelve enemy, knocked out a machinegun position, and his aircraft sustained twenty-nine hits.

Captain Ronald A. Radcliffe's courage, dogged determination and skilled expertise as a pilot proved to be the domineering force during the rescue efforts. Captain Radcliffe's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service. Captain Radcliffe was given the distinguished Silver Star for his brave actions.

Only a few months later, on April 28th 1972, Captain Ronald A Radcliffe showed his heroism in Viet Nam and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his valiant efforts. Still a pilot of a Light Observation Scout helicopter with Troop F, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Aviation Brigade, in the Republic of Vietnam, Captain Radcliffe faced hostile fire from the enemy. Almost immediately upon take off from Quang Tri City, Captain Radcliffe's helicopter began to receive sporadic enemy automatic small arms fire that was to last throughout the mission. Because the North Vietnamese Army units dispersed themselves among large groups of fleeing civilians, much of the hostile fire could not be returned for fear of injuring civilians.

Despite being unable to return the enemy fire, Captain Ronald Radcliffe volunteered to continue the mission. Observing tank tracks which led into a village, from which both gunships in Captain Radcliffe's flight were receiving automatic small arms fire, he followed the tracks into the village and discovered one Russian amphibious tank camouflaged with palm trees. He skillfully maneuvered his helicopter to a position where his door gunner could mark it with a smoke grenade.

Gunships rolled in and destroyed the enemy tank with heat rockets. Returning to the tank for a damage assessment, Captain Ronald Radcliffe observed a second tank. Immediately turning his attention to the new target, he maneuvered his aircraft so that his crew chief could drop one white phosphorus grenade into the open hatch and one next to the outside of the tank. The interior of the enemy tank burst into flames completely destroying it.

The second gunship in the flight began to take hits from intense ground fire. After radioing a distress call the gunship burst into flames, became inverted and crashed. With complete disregard for his own safety Captain Radcliffe flew to where the gunship had crashed. Arriving at the crash site, he noticed that while the pilot was dead and trapped inside the burning aircraft, the aircraft commander had been thrown clear and appeared to be alive.

Despite receiving small arms fire from a wood line approximately twenty-five meters distant, Captain Ronald Radcliffe landed only twenty feet from the gunship. Noticing that his crew chief was having trouble carrying the critically wounded aircraft commander through the knee-deep mud, he hovered his aircraft to within ten feet of the burning aircraft and its exploding ordnance. At this point the heat was so intense it burned the hair on Captain Radcliffe's face. After his crew chief and the mortally wounded gunship aircraft commander were on board, Captain Ronald Radcliffe directed his crew chief in applying first aid in an effort to save the life of his comrade, while evacuating him to an aid station in Quang Tri.

Other awards and honors given to Captain Ronald A Radcliffe include six Distinguished Flying Crosses, 4 Purple Hearts, 2 bronze Stars, 2 Army Commendation Medals, 1 Air Metal with “V” device, 58 Air Medals for flying over 1900 hours of combat assault flight time in Vietnam, 2 Vietnamese Crosses of Gallantry one with palm, The Vietnam Service Medal, The Vietnam Campaign Medal, and The Chicago Medal of Merit from Mayor Daley in 1972.

Top Financial Aid Tips: Tip 6 - Use Loans as a Last Resort

Unfortunately there are tons of scholarships that go unclaimed each year. Most of which are unclaimed because no one ever applies for them so before seeking out loans to pay for college consider researching scholarships and applying for as many as possible to help with your education or that of your child. 

If student loans are unavoidable, opt for subsidized loans when you can. The federal government pays the interest on such loans while you’re in school and during the grace period before repayment begins. For details, turn to theU.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid Information Center, Nellie Mae and SallieMae. You also could consider applying for a loan through MyRichUncle.com. The entrepreneurs who started this Web site look beyond credit histories only and do a “holistic” examination of students’ grade-point averages, programs of study and test scores when deciding how to farm out loans.

See our previous blog on scholarships for more information by clicking here.

Lessons in Black History: February 27, 2015

The 761st Tank Battalion

The 761st Tank Battalion was the last of the three United States Army segregated combat tank battalion during World War II. The unit was made up of African Americans soldiers, who by Federal law were not permitted to serve alongside white troops. They were known as the “Black Panthers” and their unit's motto was “Come out fighting."

The Black Panther Tank Battalion was attached to the XII Corps' 26th Infantry Division, assigned to Gen. George S. Patton Jr.'s Third Army, an army already racing eastward across France. As a result of their great fighting abilities the 761st Tank Battalion spearheaded a number of Patton's moves into enemy territory. They forced a hole in the Siegfried Line, allowing Patton's 4th Armored Division to pour through into Germany. They Black Panthers fought in France, Belgium, and Germany, and were among the first American forces to link up with the Soviet Army (Ukrainians) at the River Steyr in Austria.

The most famous member of the 761st was Second Lieutenant Jack Robinson. During the 761st's training, a white bus driver told Robinson to move to the back of the bus, and Robinson refused. Although his battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Paul L. Bates, refused to consider the court-martial charges put forward by the arresting Military Policemen, the base commander transferred Robinson to the 758th Tank Battalion, whose commander was willing to sign the insubordination court-martial consent. Robinson would eventually be acquitted of all charges, though he never saw combat. He became famous a few months later when he was instrumental in the desegregation of professional baseball.

In March 1941, 98 black enlisted men reported to Fort Knox, Ky., from Fort Custer, Michigan for armored warfare training with the 758th Tank Battalion (light). The pioneer black tankers trained in light tank operations, mechanics and related phases of mechanized warfare, as enlisted men from other Army units joined their ranks.

The 758th trained on the M-5 light tank, which carried a crew of four. Powered by twin Cadillac engines, it could reach a maximum speed of 40 mph and had an open-road cruising range of 172 miles. It was armed with a .30 caliber machine gun mounted to fire along the same axis as the tank's main armament, a 37mm cannon. When the tracer bullets from the .30 caliber registered on a target, the cannon would be fired, hopefully scoring a direct hit. The M-5 was also armed with two more .30-caliber machine guns, one on the turret and one in the bow. The light tank was employed to provide fire support, mobility and crew protection in screening and reconnaissance missions.

The 5th Tank Group, commanded by Colonel LeRoy Nichols, was to be made up of black enlisted personnel and white officers. With the 758th Tank Battalion in place, two more tank battalions were needed to complete the 5th Tank Group.

On March 15, 1942, the War Department activated the 761st Tank Battalion (light) at Camp Claiborne, La., with a strength of 36 officers and 593 enlisted men. On September 15, 1943, the 761st Battalion moved to Camp Hood, Texas, for advanced training; there they changed from light to medium tanks.

General Ben Lear, Commander of the U.S. Second Army, rated the unit "superior" after a special review and deemed the unit "combat ready". After a brief deployment to England, the 761st landed in France via Omaha Beach on October 10, 1944. The unit, comprised of six white officers, thirty black officers, and 676 black enlisted men, was assigned to General George Patton's US Third Army at his request, attached to the 26th Infantry Division.

The tankers received a welcome from the Third Army commander, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., who had observed the 761st conducting training maneuvers in the States: 'Men, you're the first Negro tankers to ever fight in the American Army. I would never have asked for you if you weren't good. I have nothing but the best in my Army. I don't care what color you are as long as you go up there and kill those Kraut sons of bitches. Everyone has their eyes on you and is expecting great things from you. Most of all your race is looking forward to you. Don't let them down and damn you, don't let me down!'


The 761st's mission was to take the German strong hold in the town of Tillet. Every other American unit assigned to take the town had been beaten back. Tanks, artillery, and infantry inside the Ardennes Forest had assaulted Tillet and all had failed to take it. The operations of the 761st in the Bulge split the enemy lines at three points--the Houffalize*Bastogne road, the St. Vith*Bastogne highway, and the St. Vith*Trier road--preventing the resupply of German forces encircling American troops at Bastogne. After a week of steady fighting against entrenched SS troops, the 761st took Tillet and drove the Germans out in full retreat.

Later, as the armored spearhead for the 103rd Infantry Division, the 761st took part in assaults that resulted in the breech of the Siegfried Line. From March 20 to 23, 1945, operating far in advance of friendly artillery and in the face of vicious German resistance, elements of the 761st attacked and destroyed multiple defensive positions along the Siegfried Line. The 761st captured seven German towns, more than 400 vehicles, 80 heavy weapons, 200 horses and thousands of small arms. During that three-day period, the battalion inflicted more than 4,000 casualties on the German army. It was later determined that the 761st had fought against elements of 14 German divisions.
The strength of the 761st Tank Battalion was proven during 183 days of continual fighting, including action in the Battle of the Bulge. Staff Sergeant Ruben Rivers posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his extraordinary heroism in action. Warren G. H. Crecy received a battlefield commission and a recommendation for the Medal of Honor while earning his reputation as the "Baddest Man" in the 761st. Eventually, after delays caused by the deep racial prejudices of the time, the unit was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation by President Jimmy Carter.

Top Financial Aid Tips: Tip 5 - You Must Complete the Form

There are so many parents who avoid the FAFSA for as long as possible because of what they remember as a complex form. Gone are the days of a long drawn out paper application (although they still have one) now you can complete the application in 3-5 days

According to the Federal Financial Aid Website:

To apply for federal student aid, you must complete and submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

By completing and submitting a FAFSA, you will automatically be considered for federal student aid. In addition, your state and college may use your FAFSA information to determine your eligibility for nonfederal aid.

Completing the FAFSA is an easy process, and it’s completely free. We recommend that you submit your FAFSA online using FAFSA on the Web, as your application will process within 3-5 days; alternatively, you can submit a paper FAFSA, which processes within 7-10 days.

For help with filling out the FAFSA, you can go to http://studentaid.ed.gov/resources#free-application-for.

Lessons in Black History: February 26, 2015

A slave who became a successful plantation owner, Blanche Kelso Bruce was the second African American to serve in the United States Senate and the first to be elected to a full term.

Blanche Bruce was born near Farmville, Virginia, on March 1, 1841. His mother, Polly Bruce, was a slave, and his father, Pettus Perkinson, was his mother’s owner and the son-in-law of her deceased former owner, Lemuel Bruce. Bruce’s first name was originally “Branch,” but he changed it to “Blanche” as a teenager. For unexplained reasons, he later adopted the middle name “Kelso.” One of 11 children, Blanche Bruce was a personal servant to his half brother William Perkinson. Even though he was a slave, Bruce was accorded a status nearly equal to the Perkinson children’s. Described by contemporaries as an eager learner, he studied with William’s private tutor.

Bruce escaped slavery at the opening of the Civil War and attempted to enlist in the Union Army. After the military refused his application, he taught school, briefly attended Oberlin College, and worked as a steamboat porter on the Mississippi River.

In 1864 Blanche Bruce settled in Hannibal, Missouri, and organized the state's first school for blacks. Five years later he moved to Mississippi where he entered local politics and established himself as a prosperous landowner. In quick succession he was appointed registrar of voters in Tallahatchie County, tax assessor of Bolivar County, elected sheriff and tax collector of Bolivar where he also served as supervisor of education. On a trip to the state capital of Jackson in 1870, Bruce gained the attention of powerful white Republicans who dominated Mississippi's Reconstruction government.

In February 1874, Bruce was elected by the state legislature to the Senate as a Republican. In the Senate, Blanche Bruce was a member of the committees on Pensions, Manufactures, and Education and Labor. He chaired the Committee on River Improvements and the Select Committee to Investigate the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company. He supported desegregation of the army, protection of African American voting rights, and more humane treatment of Native Americans. Bruce encouraged increasing the disposition of western land grants to African Americans. On February 14, 1879, Bruce presided over the U.S. Senate becoming the first African-American (and the only former slave) to do so.

Blanche Bruce’s privileged background often alienated him from his poorer constituents. He and his wife, Josephine Beall Wilson of Ohio,the first black teacher in the Cleveland public schools and the daughter of a prominent mulatto dentist, whom he married on June 24, 1878, became fixtures in Washington, DC, high society.

Blanche Bruce worked devotedly to gain rights for African Americans. After leaving the Senate, he was appointed registrar of the U.S. Treasury by President James Garfield. At the Republican convention of 1888, Bruce received 11 votes for vice president. He was appointed recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia and later was a member of the board of trustees of Howard University.

In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison appointed Blanche Bruce recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia; however, he left that office in 1893 after receiving an honorary LL.D. and joining the board of trustees at Howard University. Bruce returned to the Treasury post in 1897 after being considered for a Cabinet position in President William McKinley’s administration. He continued to reside in Washington until he succumbed to a kidney ailment due to complications from diabetes on March 17, 1898.

Top Financial Aid Tips: Tip 4 - Special Circumstances

Sometimes in life special circumstances arise that may change your families EFC which will change the amount of financial aid your child receives. Say for instance prior to your child entering school you are laid off from your job. If this happens then your income changes so your EFC will  decrease. Don't be ashamed make sure that the financial aid office of the school your child will attend knows of any special circumstances that could affect their aid.

Lessons in Black History: February 25, 2015

States Diplomat, a key member of the United Nations for more than two decades, and winner of the 1950 Nobel Prize for Peace for his successful negotiation of an Arab-Israeli truce in Palestine the previous year.

Ralph Johnson Bunche was born in Detroit August 7, 1903. His father, Fred Bunche, was a barber in a shop having a clientele of whites only; his mother, Olive (Johnson) Bunche, was an amateur musician. When he was a child, the family moved to Toledo, Ohio then in 1915, Albuquerque, New Mexico in an effort to improve his parents' health. His mother died in 1916 and his father three months later. Bunche and his sister, Grace, went to live in Los Angeles with their maternal grandmother, Lucy Taylor Johnson. Ralph Bunche worked to help the family's hard pressed finances by selling newspapers, serving as house boy for a movie actor, working for a carpet-laying firm, and doing what odd jobs he could find.

A good student, Ralph Bunche was the valedictorian of his graduating class at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, where he had been a debater and all-around athlete competing in football, basketball, baseball, and track. An athlete scholarship paved the way for Bunche to attend UCLA, where he played varsity basketball on championship teams, and was active in debate and campus journalism. Ralph Bunche graduated in 1927, summa cum laude, valedictorian of his class, with a major in international relations.

With another scholarship in hand, he moved on to Harvard, where he began his graduate studies in political science. He completed his master's degree in 1928 and for the next six years alternated between teaching at Howard University and working toward the doctorate at Harvard. Ralph Bunche was the first African American to gain a PhD in political science from an American university. From 1936 to 1938, Ralph Bunche conducted postdoctoral research in anthropology at London School of Economics, and later at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

In 1936, Bunche authored a pamphlet entitled A World View of Race. In it, Bunche wrote: "And so class will some day supplant race in world affairs. Race war will then be merely a side-show to the gigantic class war which will be waged in the big tent we call the world." From 1936 to 1940, Bunche served as contributing editor of the journalScience and Society: A Marxian Quarterly.

During World War II Ralph Bunche served in the U.S. War Department, the Office of Strategic Services, and the State Department. He was active in the preliminary planning for the United Nations at the San Francisco Conference of 1945, and in 1947 he joined the permanent UN Secretariat in New York as director of the new Trusteeship Department.

Ralph Bunche was asked by Secretary General Trygve Lie to aid a UN special committee appointed to negotiate a settlement between warring Palestinian Arabs and Jews, In 1948, he traveled to the Middle East as the chief aide to Sweden's Count Folke Bernadotte, who had been appointed by the UN to mediate the conflict. These men chose the island of Rhodes for their base and working headquarters. In September 1948, Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem by members of the underground Jewish group Lehi.

Following the assassination, Dr. Bunche became the UN's chief mediator. The representative for Israel was Moshe Dayan who reported in memoirs that much of his delicate negotiation with Ralph Bunche was conducted over a billiard table while the two were shooting pool. Optimistically, Dr. Bunche commissioned a local potter to create unique memorial plates bearing the name of each negotiator. When the agreement was signed, Dr. Bunche awarded these gifts. After unwrapping his, Moshe Dayan asked Ralph Bunche what might have happened if no agreement had been reached. "I'd have broken the plates over your damn heads", Bunche answered.

For achieving the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Dr. Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. Bunche returned home to a hero's welcome. New York gave him a ticker tape parade up Broadway, and Los Angeles declared a "Ralph Bunche Day ". He was besieged with requests to lecture, was awarded the Spingarn Prize by the NAACP in 1949, and was awarded over thirty honorary degrees in the next three years.

Ralph Bunche continued to work for the United Nations, mediating in other strife-torn regions, including the Congo, Yemen, Kashmir, and Cyprus. He rose to the position of undersecretary-general in 1968.

Despite having won the Nobel Prize, Bunche continued to struggle against racism across the United States and in his own neighborhood. In 1959, he and his son, Ralph, Jr., were denied membership in the West Side Tennis Club in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens. After a great deal of publicity, the club offered an apology and invitation of membership and the official who initially rebuffed the Bunches resigned. Bunche refused the offer saying it was not based on racial equality and was only an exception based on his personal prestige.

Ralph Bunche was an active and vocal supporter of the civil rights movement, and participated in the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, and also in the famous Selma to Montgomery, Alabama march that led to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Throughout his career, Ralph Bunche has maintained strong ties with education. He chaired the Department of Political Science at Howard University from 1928 until 1950; taught at Harvard University from 1950 to 1952; served as a member of the New York City Board of Education, as a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, as a member of the Board of the Institute of International Education, and as a trustee of Oberlin College, Lincoln University, and New Lincoln School.

Ralph Bunche was passionate in his belief that conflicts could be resolved through negotiation, without resorting to the use of force. He dedicated more than twenty years of his life to achieving the goal of international peace. Dr. Bunche worked tirelessly to resolve seemingly intractable conflicts in such varied places as Palestine, Yemen, Kashmir, Cyprus, Suez, the Congo, and Bahrain. In many cases, his negotiations prevented the outbreak of hostilities and as such did not make headlines.