There was a battalion of soldiers in World War II that had to fight for its chance to fight.
It was the all-black 761st Tank Battalion of the US Army. Those men trained for over two years, but were not permitted into actual combat until the American forces in Europe were being decimated by superior German tanks.
That’s when the 761st Tank Battalion – dubbed the Black Panthers – was deployed under General George Patton.
One member of that heroic outfit was a man named Leonard Smith, known to his friends as Smitty. And Smitty was friends with another GI whose son later became one of the greatest superstars of basketball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Smitty’s story struck a chord with Abdul-Jabbar, who ultimately met other members of the 761st and gathered their stories for a book he called Brothers in Arms.
The story is one of not just courage and determination but humility and humanity.
I met with the soft-spoken Abdul-Jabbar when his book came out in 2004.
So here now, from 2004, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The 761st Tank Battalion included one Medal of Honor recipient, 11 Silver Stars, and 300 Purple Hearts.