Harlem Hellfighters, Personal Reflections

February is Black History Month, and I watched a PBS show on the Harlem Hellfighters and want to share some comments. This was a brave and amazing unit, and I am proud to have been a member of that National Guard unit.

The 369th Regiment was an artillery unit when I enlisted in 1965. This was at the beginning of the Vietnam conflict. I received a draft notice and looked to join a reserve or National Guard unit rather than spend two years on active duty. I had trouble finding a unit without a waiting list, and a friend suggested I apply to his unit. The Armory was in Harlem, and as it happened, not only did they have an opening, but they were also having a recruiting drive and seemed to want to integrate it with some more white members. I applied and signed up immediately.

Coincidently, this was the closest Armory to where I lived in the Highbridge section of the Bronx– less than 10 minutes by taxi– so for convenience, it could not have been better. I served about five and a quarter years before being given an early release because I was federally activated during the 1970 postal strike. That strike was during tax season, and I spent three weeks in federal service to get the mail delivered. I actually worked in a post office the first day and then was fortunate to become the public liaison to provide daily updates to my Amory. At that time, I lived in Manhattan about four blocks from the Armory on 33rd Street and Park Avenue where I reported every morning to get updates. I then spent part of the day writing the newsletter. During that period, I was a part owner in a printing business, so I went there to have the newsletters printed and then to my Armory in the late afternoon to distribute the updates and also to get interviews and insights from the officers and enlisted men that I could include in the next day’s newsletter. Traveling in Manhattan was very easy with the subways, plus I had some free time to work on tax returns. I also worked late into the night on tax returns. Nothing was a chore and I enjoyed it all.

I have a lot of Armory stories—I was there when we received the terrible and dreadful news that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr had been shot. Through the years, I forged strong connections with my friends through the distressing and traumatic events we faced together. That day, a few of my friends walked me to get a taxi, but there was no trouble or unrest in that part of Harlem.

Another time while with the Armory, I was leaving a client’s office on 2nd Avenue and 43rd Street, waiting for an elevator while looking out a Fwindow facing the United Nations Building. Suddenly, all of its lights went out. It was scary, and the client’s son, Larry Silverstein, later to become the developer of the rebuilt World Trade Center, came out to tell me there appeared to be a blackout. I spent some time with him and his then brother-in-law Bernard Mendick, who was his partner at that time. They called down to the ground floor restaurant to order meals which they asked me to get. They were on the 20th floor, but I was a “kid” at that time, so that was no bother. While eating with them, I heard on a portable radio that I was activated to help out in what became known as the 1965 NY City Black Out. I left the client and reported to the Armory on 33rd Street, but they did not need me, and eventually, I went home when the electricity was back working.

Back to my unit. The general of the unit, whom I never saw or met, was Wilmer F. Lucas who was the fifth Black CPA in the United States and first in New York. I knew of his firm, Lucas and Tucker, which might have been the top Black owed CPA firm at that time, but I had no involvement with them at all. In those days my primary concern was learning and growing as a CPA (that was a big priority for me), moonlighting to get my own clients and dating, and I also had a part-time mail-order stamp business. I was also going to school at night, first to law school and then to Baruch to get an MBA. I was busy with my “life” and not as concerned with things I had no control over. Today it is a regret that I never saw or met him. He was a trailblazer and I missed an opportunity I would cherish today.

While in the National Guard I met some good friends and also became friendly with my Company Commander. At one weekend meeting, he asked me for some help preparing projections for a soul food restaurant, Phase 1, he was going to open. I helped him and ended up becoming a minor partner and was the only white person among the four owners.

Of course, I pretty much took all of my Black friends and clients there as well as almost all of my dates. This became a nice hangout place for me where I also built my book of business. Also, NY Knicks’ Willis Reed and Walt Frazier were regulars after many Knicks games.

I had an interesting Black clientele, and I can attribute most of it to my being in the Harlem Hellfighters. Black history is a rich heritage, and the Harlem Hellfighters is an important part of that, and I am proud to have been a small, very small, share of that history.