A. William Perry |

A. William Perry, Italy [1944] | World War II, 1939-1946
Army
92nd Infantry 'Buffalo' Division; Company K, 370th Infantry Regiment
Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Italy
Sergeant
Cleveland, OH
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William Perry had been in the Army for only ten days when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. That was the day he was shipped off to Alabama for the first of many postings in the racially tense South. Perry, from Cleveland, hadn't encountered the kind of systematic discrimination he experienced in Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Even in isolated and nearly all-black Ft. Huachuca, Perry recalls, there were problems, mainly with young recruits bucking military discipline. He himself was transferred to the infantry for a minor infraction. Italy was the first place in his service career he actually felt welcome, first by General Mark Clark, who promoted one of the 92nd's officers on the spot, and then by the grateful Italian citizens. Fighting the Germans could be complicated by their hiding out in landmark buildings like the Tower of Pisa, off-limits to Allied firepower.
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