A HOUSE RESOLUTION honoring the brave men of the 555th parachute infantry battalion.
Whereas, on February 25, 1943, the 555th Parachute Infantry Company was placed on the rolls of the United States Army; and
Whereas, by December of that year, Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, authorized the activation of the Company as an all‑black unit; and
Whereas, the Company was to be composed of volunteers, with an enlisted cadre to be selected from members of the 92nd Infantry (Buffalo) Division at Fort Huachuca, Arizona; and
Whereas, the Company was officially activated on December 30, 1943, at Fort Benning, Georgia; and
Whereas, by February 1944, the first 16 men qualified as parachutists; and
Whereas, on November 25, 1944, the Company moved to Camp Mackall, North Carolina, and was reorganized and redesignated as Company A of the newly activated 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion; and
Whereas, in May of 1945, the 555th, nicknamed the "Triple Nickles," was deployed to Pendleton Field, Oregon, with a detachment to Chico Army Air Field, California, with the mission of recovering and disposing possible Japanese balloon bombs as well as suppressing forest fires; and
Whereas, the 555th was assigned to the Ninth Services Command and trained by the U.S. Forest Service, becoming the military's first "smokejumpers"; and
Whereas, between July and October of 1945, the 555th bravely combated several forest fires and recorded over 1,000 individual jumps; and
Whereas, the 555th suffered only one fatality during that time when Malvin L. Brown died during a "letdown" technique from a tree on August 6, 1945; and
Whereas, the 555th returned to Camp Mackall in October 1945 and then was transferred to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for the next two years and later attached to the 82nd Airborne Division; and
Whereas, the 555th was inactivated on December 15, 1947, and most of its members were assigned to the Airborne Division's 3rd Battalion, 505th Airborne Infantry, before moving to other units; and
Whereas, the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was removed from the U.S. Army's rolls on August 22, 1950; and
Whereas, in 2013, the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was honored by the U.S. Forest Service when the agency named a conference room in its national headquarters office in Washington, D.C., after 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion; and
Whereas, Clarence H. Beavers is the only surviving member of the original 555th Parachute Infantry test platoon; Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:
SECTION 1.  The House of Representatives honors the memory of the brave men who served with honor and distinction in the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion during World War II.
SECTION 2.  The Principal Clerk shall transmit a certified copy of this resolution to Clarence H. Beavers and to the 555th Parachute Infantry Association, Inc.
SECTION 3.  This resolution is effective upon adoption.