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Archiver > CARIBBEAN > 1999-09 > 0936342151


From: Richard Bond< >
Subject: Re: [CARIBBEAN] Re: British West Indian Regiment
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 03:02:31 -0400 (EDT)


I once knew a black American Ed Nelson who was a pilot for the French
during WWI.

Another first for West Indians on the field of war was the French
Caribbean unit that was first to be gassed by the Germans who did not
want to test the experimental method against fellow Europeans. Needless
to say they used it against them later.

A note on my personal background. My father was a white employee of the
U. S. Interior and Agriculture Departments in the Virgin Islands. He was
later Professor of Caribbean History at The University of the Virgin
Islands. I remember his having been called racist on one ocassion by a
student who became speechless when I was pointed out to him. My mothers
parents Adolph Gereau and Annetta Brewster Gereau were colored mostly
black Danish citizens not legally American until the 1920s. My mother
was also part white and part Asian. During WWI my grandfather was in
counter intelligence in Seattle. His brother in law started an airplane
company which he operated until 1934. His name Bill Boeing.

I am not trying to shrill against whites it's just that the record of
military treatment by the US and UK has only lately become equitable.

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