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Ed Gitre

@edgitre.bsky.social

171 followers 162 following 185 posts

Father of 2 amazing boys, husband, historian, educator, school board member, digital scholar, director of americansoldierww2.org. Working on a book on the battle over Jim Crow in the US Army in WWII. Opinions my own.

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This is the 1938 map of Germany and German-speaking diaspora I use in my WWII class to help explain the appeal of fascism.

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

"LEDO, ASSAI, INDIA-1st It Robert F. Higgins of Newton Highland, Texas, voting officer for the QM battalion (Mob) delivering federal ballots to men of that battalion, while S/Sgt Dennis Smith of Jacksonville, Florida casts his vote. (U.S. Signal Corps Photo from Bureau of Public Relations) 11-10-44"

Black and white photograph of several Black soldiers stationed in India lined up to vote at a make-shift polling station for the 1944 election.

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I'm so pleased our article on combat stress in WWII is now out, using data from americansoldierww2.org. One key finding: 62% of surveyed combat veterans in the Pacific Theater exhibited enough psychological distress that they would have been disqualified from induction. doi.org/10.1177/2156...

Bar graph with caption: "Figure 2. Distribution of psychological distress among combat soldiers in the pacific theater in World War II (data from five S100 surveys). The shaded bars represent distress scores that are high enough to have disqualified potential inductees for service in the army in 1944."

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

So true. Carnegie Foundation funding of Gunnar Myrdal's study of race in the US wasn't a problem until the Supreme Court used it in support of Brown vs Board of Education.

Page 333 from 1956 Congressional Record of US Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, chaired by Mississippi Senator James Eastland, on Civil Rights Proposals.

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

The most commented on characteristic of the first draft selectees in 1940 was the diversity of ethnicities. The ignorance of US history is remarkable.

Image of a newspaper article titled First Ten in Draft Spell National Life by Dorothy Thompson published in Oakland Tribune, 6 November 1940.

Image of newspaper photograph from 9 November 1940 with the caption Melting Post Soldier--Chan Chong Yuen, right New York Chinese laundryman, couldn't wait for his number in draft to be called, so he enlisted yesterday. He is being sworn in by Sing Lee, a Chinese veteran of the World War, who wears D.S.C. for bravery.

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

From the stands yesterday. A new day with a new governor.

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

On Facebook, Black Liberators in the Netherlands posted pictures of panels the Heritage Foundation reportedly pressed the Trump administration to have removed from the American cemetery in Margraten. Black soldiers who volunteered for combat duty as riflemen are among the dead buried there.

Exhibit panel removed from the American cemetery in Margraten

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

"Equal opportunity of service and of recreation are the right of every American soldier regardless of branch, race, color or creed." Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1 March 1944

Eisenhower speaks to troops before D-Day

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Let's travel back further to March 6, 1942. The Senate Committee on Military Affairs was debating an armed forces reorg. Committee member Truman argued, "If we could just get the War Department and the Navy Department on speaking terms..., I don't think that we will ever have another Pearl Harbor."

Title Page: DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE COORDINATION AND CONTROL HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE SEVENTY - SEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON S. 2092 A BILL TO ESTABLISH A DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE COORDINATION AND CONTROL, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES MARCH 6, 1942

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

A letter I received from my GOP rep. here in SW VA in response to my pleading that he do something to stop the evisceration of our fed. gov't, incl. the @altnehgov.bsky.social. He criticizes Congress for ceding too much power in the past to the Executive branch. Those days are OVER! But ... not.

Letter from Congressman Morgan Griffith (R, VA-9) supporting Trump Administration

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

With this rapturous ending...

Text from acreenshot: The first days of a war are rarely determinative of its outcome, and even the best plan changes when it meets the real world. Leaders get the opportunity to prove their mettle in those moments when they must adapt under fire to better pursue an unwavering goal. For Mr. Trump, the battlefield awaits.

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

A reminder of the way things used to be in the before times...

Infographic from the 1949 US Army pamphlet "Negro Manpower in the Army" depicting the Army's race policy. "Ultimate Aim--Use of All Personnel According to Qualification--Without Regard to Race."

Second infographic from the 1949 US Army pamphlet "Negro Manpower in the Army" depicting the Army's race policy. "The Army's Aim ... Only What's on the Target." Image of target surrounded by crossed out words "Background," "Your Race," "Your Religion," "Social Position," with "effective soldier" appearing in the target's center.

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

I'm currently teaching two WWII classes, one on the battle over Jim Crow, the focus of my current research. The once-hallowed legacy of the men and women who served, suffered, and died in that global conflagration is being absolutely eviscerated before our very eyes. What a shameful week.

Black and white photograph of two dead World War II soldiers face down in the mud, taken in Belgium circa December 1944. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, 111-SC-198245 ww2-186.

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Ed Gitre @edgitre.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

This was part of my weekend reading. There's so much to learn still about transnational interwar fascism.

Image of George L. Mosse, "Introduction: The Genesis of Fascism," Journal of Contemporary History 1, no. 1 (1966).

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