Silent Service

Ben Davis was the first Negro ever commissioned from the ranks of the U.S. Army. A tightlipped, light-skinned man, he left Howard University for a temporary first lieutenancy during the Spanish-American War. When it ended, he signed on as a private, fought his way up to sergeant, ranked third on the examination that won him his permanent commission.

As one of only half a dozen Negro officers in the Army, his choice of assignments was strictly limited. He taught military science at Negro colleges, served as military attache in Liberia. He spent World War I sidetracked in the Philippines. But Davis took soldierly satisfaction in doing any job he was assigned.

He learned to get along. In making his official courtesy call on the commanding officer of a new post, he always saw to it that the officer was out at the time. Later, as a roving representative of the Inspector General's office, he always arranged his schedule to arrive at a new command in midafternoon, so that the commanding officer could look him over and decide whether to invite him to dinner. "I was always the only colored officer at my post," he recalled. "But it made no difference to me. Nobody paid any attention, and at every post I managed to make friends with somebody."

By 1930, his quiet dignity and soldierly efficiency had made him a full colonel; eight years later, he got his first major command: a Harlem National Guard regiment. In 1940, Franklin Roosevelt appointed him brigadier general, the U.S. Army's first and only Negro general officer, and he took over the 4th Cavalry Brigade at Fort Riley, Kans. He was sent to Europe in 1942, won the Distinguished Service Medal for his work in inspecting Negro troops and easing explosive Army racial tensions. After the war he settled into the routine of peacetime Army life.

Last week Ben Davis was summoned to the White House. On the steps leading to the White House rose garden, he listened quietly to a complimentary speech from Harry Truman, received a testimonial scroll signed by the President and Davis' Army comrades. After 50 years in the Army, Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis, 71, had retired. Among the guests was Lieut. Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Jr., commander of the 332nd Fighter Wing, the regular Air Force's ranking Negro officer.

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