Today I Learned: Up to 1/3 of all Native Americans of military age in the USA volunteered for service during World War 2
A group of Native American Marines pose for a photo on Bouganville in 1943By 1940, the population of native Americans in the USA was around 350,000. After war broke out in 7 December 1942, the Navajo and other tribes were so eager to go to war that they stood for hours in bad weather to sign their draft cards, while others carried their own rifles so they would be ready for battle when they joined up. Unwilling to wait for their draft numbers, one-fourth of the Mescalero Apaches in New Mexico enlisted. Nearly all the able-bodied Chippewas at the Grand Portage Reservation enlisted. In a story that has been attributed to many other tribes as well, Blackfeet Indians mocked the need for a conscription bill. "Since when," their members cried, "has it been necessary for Blackfeet to draw lots to fight?"
Even the clannish Pueblo tribe, whose members exhibited a historical suspicion of the white world, contributed 213 men, 10 percent of their population of 2,205, to the armed forces. Wisconsin Chippewas at the Lac Oreilles Reservation contributed 100 men from a population of 1,700. Nearly all the able-bodied Chippewas at the Grand Portage Reservation enlisted. Blackfeet Indians enlisted in droves. Navajo Indians responded by sending 3,600 into military service; 300 lost their lives. Many volunteered from the Fort Peck Sioux-Assinibois Reservation in Montana, the descendants of the Indians that defeated Custer. The Iroquois took it as an insult to be called up under compulsion. They passed their own draft act and sent their young braves into National Guard units.
By mid-1942, the annual enlistment for Native Americans was approximately 7,500. By the beginning of 1945, the yearly average had jumped to 22,000. Selective Service reported in 1942 that 99% of all Native Americans who were eligible for the draft (healthy males between the ages of 21 and 44) had registered for the draft.
As many as 25,000 Native Americans actively fought in World War II: 21,767 in the Army, 1,910 in the Navy, 874 in the Marines (Ira Hayes, one of the Marines who lifted the US flag on Imo Jima was a Pima native), 121 in the Coast Guard, and several hundred Native American women as nurses.
These figures represent over one-third of able-bodied Native American men aged 18–50, and even included as high as seventy percent of the population of some tribes. Unlike African Americans, Native Americans did not serve in segregated units and served alongside white Americans.
Whether it was due to innate skill as warriors or merely as a reflection of the stereotype of the Native American warrior spirit perpetuated by American popular culture, Native American men were generally regarded highly for their military service in World War II. Maj. Lee Gilstrop of Oklahoma, who trained 2 ,000 Native Americans at his post, said, "The Indian is the best damn soldier in the Army." Natives proved to be experts in bayonet fighting, marksmanship, scouting, and patrolling. Native Americans endured thirst and lack of food better than the average soldier. They also had an acute sense of perception and excellent endurance, along with superior physical coordination.
Military Thread V22 
Nov 7 2016, 03:42 PM
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more excuses incoming... 
must have given them a bit of a scare 
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