Men of the 320th
Henry Parham’s draft letter landed in his mailbox in Richmond, Va., in December 1942, one month after he turned 21. "They got me," he said.
Willie Howard, a private in the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, would land on Utah Beach with the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion.
Decades after the war George Davison wrote his story in a notebook. It is one of the few personal histories that exist among men of the 320th.
Samuel Mattison answered Uncle Sam’s call hoping a turn in the Army would make life a bit easier.
320th Gallery
George Davison scrawled the names of his buddies from the 320th on this snapshot taken in Octeville, France in July 1944. Davison noted his place in the back row.
Photo: Courtesy of Bill Davison
Artist Peggy Beeton captured the only known image of 320th men performing at the Village Hall in Checkendon, England, on New Year’s Eve 1943. Six men gave a concert of Negro spirituals, after prayers by the battalion chaplain, Rev. Albert White.
Photo: Oxfordshire Record Office
The 320th medic was among the first African Americans to land on Omaha Beach at 9 a.m. on June 6, 1944.