Emiel W. Owens served his country in the 777th Field Artillery, 
involved in actions from Omaha Beach to the occupation army in the 
Philippines. Like the rest of the U.S. Army at the time, the 777th was 
a segregated unit. Remarkably few memoirs by African Americans 
have been published from the World War II era, making Owens's 
account especially valuable. Because he situates his military 
experience in the larger context of his life and the society in which he 
lived, his story also reveals much about the changing racial climate of 
the last several decades.

    A native Texan, Owens recounts his early experiences in a small, 
rural school outside Austin during the hard times of the Depression. 
In 1943, he was drafted into the army, landing in England in August 
1944. Ten days later he was on Omaha Beach.

    By November 3 Owens and his unit were supporting the 30th 
Infantry Division as it attacked German towns and cities leading into 
the Ruhr Pocket and the Huertgen Forest. Owens starkly portrays the 
horror of the Kohlscheid Penetration. He was awarded a certificate of 
merit for his actions in that campaign.

    With help from the G.I. bill, Owens returned to college and then to 
graduate school at Ohio State University, since universities in his 
home state were still closed to African Americans. He earned a Ph.D. 
in economics, which led to a productive academic and consulting 
career.

    This is a uniquely captivating story of an African American man's 
journey from a segregated Texas town to the battlefields of Europe 
and on to postwar success in a world changed forever by the war 
Americans—black and white—had fought.

_________________________________________________________

EMIEL W. OWENS is now a retired professor of finance living in 
Houston, following a distinguished career in the field of health 
management research.


Number 105: Texas A&M University Military History Series


What people are saying about this book

"His story is a uniquely engaging one, giving a view of the social  
history of an African-American soldier in combat, as well as 
providing noteworthy battlefield accounts of some of the more 
formidable World War II campaigns."—Victoria Advocate, 
October 2006

". . . a compelling window into the social history of the African 
American soldier in World War II."—G. Kurt Piehler, author of 
Remembering War the American Way