

Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles
Spring 2013 Non-FictionThe 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, also known as the Triple Nickles, was the U.S. military's first all-black paratrooper unit. Their story is missing from most historical accounts of World War II, due to racial attitudes of the time, but it's an important one.
Tanya Stone combines interviews, photographs, original artwork and her own detailed research to create a vibrant narrative. The focus of her story is the 555th battalion, but she includes stories of other black units as well, whose courage and bravery in the war helped change attitudes about race in the military. Though the Triple Nickles were never sent overseas because of the color of their skin, they performed heroically on another little-known mission in a remote section of Oregon. They were sent to retrieve and dismantle balloon bombs that had been launched by the Japanese to thwart the United States' war efforts.
The patriotism, pride and courage black soldiers exhibited in the face of outrageous prejudice (and hypocrisy, considering the reason they were fighting) is humbling. Courage Has No Color is a story of heroes; men who served their country proudly even as their countrymen turned against them.