ACES Veterans Museum Honoring All Veterans

Happy 97th Birthday to our very own Corp Benjamin Berry who served at the Battle of the Bulge during WWII. He is our most active supporter and worker at the ACES Veterans Museum

RED BALL EXPRESS: Truckers carried tons of supplies throughout WWII. Most popular of the colored troop truckers was the Red Ball Express. The original route, from St. Lo to Paris and return, was later extended to Sommesous, Reims, and Hirson. Red Ball convoys operated from 25 August to 13 November 1944. The truckers carried approximately 412,193 tons of supplies to the armies, covering a total of 121,873, 929 ton-miles during this period. On the average day, 899 vehicles ...went forward, traveling 1,504,616 ton-miles. The average time for the trip to Paris and return was 53-4 hours; the maximum number of truck units operating on the route was 140, supplemented at the height of operations by trucks manned by personnel of combat and other service units. This number had dwindled to nineteen by the time tactical changes and the development of new ports caused the closing of the route. The majority of the units were Negro companies. Approximately 73 percent of the truck companies in the Motor Transport Service in the European theater were Negro.108 Supplementing the Red Ball Express and replacing it after its operations closed down were several other through highways modeled on it. The White Ball Route, carrying supplies from Le Havre and Rouen to forward areas at Beauvais and Reims for the northern French and Belgian campaigns and to rail transfer points at Paris, began operating with six companies on 25 September, clearing the ports of Le Havre and Rouen as its first mission. The B-B (Bayeaux-Brussels) Red Lion Route transported 500 tons of British petrol and other supplies daily from Bayeaux to the 21 Army Group Roadhead 1 at Brussels for approximately thirty days, beginning 16 September 1 944. Four of the nine truck companies on this route were Negro units. The ABC (Antwerp-Brussels-Charleroi) Route began to operate on 30 November. The Green Diamond Route, operating from 10 October to 1 November, ran between the ports and beaches of Normandy and Dol at the northern base of the Brest peninsula, passing through Avranches and Granville on the way. Two battalions, one of which was Negro, operated nineteen truck companies on this route at the peak of operations. Two battalions, the 467th and 519th, the latter Negro, operated the POL (petroleum, oil, lubricants) routes of the Motor Transport Service. These units began to operate on D plus 8, moving forward as pipelines were laid, loading from pipe taps and storage tanks along the line, and carrying POL to forward dumps for the armies.109 In the Advance Section, Communications Zone, gas supply companies like the 3877th, a corps unit supplying divisional troops, and the 3917th, supplying [633] Third Army forces from August to V-E Day, took over. These units operated forward dumps, issuing and carrying to divisional units up to 165,000 gallons of gasoline a day.110 Ref: UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II, Special Studies, THE EMPLOYMENT OF NEGRO TROOPS, by Ulysses Lee, 1966

During World War II, Bette Davis was the chairman of the Hollywood Victory Committee and she founded the legendary Hollywood Canteen, along with fellow Warner B...ros actor John Garfield. The Canteen was free to active servicemen of all ages, and was an escapist’s dream: they could dance with starlets, and get served up food by their favorite Hollywood actors. Davis reportedly had one controversial stipulation, that the club be integrated. Bette received intense heat for her decision, but she and Garfield refused to back down and fought for the club to be racially integrated. Their solution was simple: if not, they’d quit. And without stars, there wasn’t a canteen. Davis won, and the Canteen was successfully integrated. https://medium.com//5-reasons-bette-davis-is-still-the-que

We want to thank the Stylistics Revue for coming out to support our troops and first responders on this Patriots Day. Dr. Althea Hankins, director of the ACES Veteran Museum also spoke on the siginficance of the day, how we overcame the impact of vandalism at our museum right before Patriots Day, and what we should all be doing to slow the spread of COVID-19.

We're here at the ACES Museum giving out honor bags. Here is a story about my father, WWII.

Aces museum 9/11 event today till 5!

9/11 drive thru memorial Germantown and Price st! Music 1pm to 5pm.

Big shout out to Kreilick Conservation for helping us restore our Vietnam memorial.