These were the truck drivers who navigated a hazardous route from the beaches, where the supplies came in, to General Patton's 3rd Army, fighting always further and further inland. The Red Ball Express, though, had a mystique. More typically, they served in a backup capacity: food service, trench-digging, truck-driving. "But the military services provided an opportunity for African-American citizens to demonstrate their capacity for service, alongside everyone else."īack in those pre-integration days, black soldiers served mostly in separate units, and didn't often get to participate in direct front-line fighting. "Segregation was a way of life in the United State of America," Holliday said. In 2006, it even figured in a video game, "Company of Heroes." In fact, though not necessarily in these fictions, The Red Ball Express was 75 percent African-American. Never heard of the Red Ball Express? Hollywood did. The 1952 movie "Red Ball Express" gave Sidney Poitier his second movie role (he was billed fifth) in 1973, it became the basis for an attempted "M*A*S*H" knockoff called "Roll Out" featuring Garrett Morris. Austin said, 'I never jumped out of a plane in my life. You gotta be crazy.' And this fellow says, 'Well, you were nothing but a truck driver.' And Austin kicked back: 'Yeah, well, you never landed on Utah Beach.' And then all of a sudden it clicked in my mind that if he was African-American and he landed on Utah Beach, he was part of the Red Ball Express." "This guy Oliver Parsons had jumped out of planes, he had a lot of jumps. "We were having a couple of drinks and everybody starts to get funny with each other," Holliday recalled. His friend and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity brother Terrance Holliday, a retired colonel and commissioner of veterans' affairs in New York City during the Bloomberg administration, only learned the Red Ball Express story by accident about five years ago, when a few drinks with another vet got the conversation flowing. But according to his daughter and his friends, he also has that famous Greatest Generation reserve: He seldom talked about his war experiences. Powlis has some difficulty speaking, following a stroke three months ago, and perhaps says less than he knows. "It was a huge blow," said Annette Powlis, an independent television stage manager who has worked on the Tony Awards, "Showtime at the Apollo" and many other shows on multiple networks. "Complete records cannot be reconstructed," says a letter that Powlis' daughter, Annette, received from the National Archives in January. That exact location, like many other things about his career, is impossible to verify, because a fire at the National Personnel Records Center on July 12, 1973, destroyed a major part of the records of army and military personnel for the period 1912 to 1959. "Landing on the beach was about the most terrifying," he said. Powlis himself can't quite recall which beach he landed on - Omaha, he now thinks it may have been others who know his story have suggested Utah. Not as hard, perhaps, as the roads that Powlis had to make his way along during his stint as a rifleman and truck driver in the Red Ball Express - one of the most striking episodes in World War II history, and a proud moment for the courageous truck drivers, most of them African-American, who risked their lives to keep the Allied troops in bacon, beans and bullets.īut much of that saga has receded into a mist of doubtful recollection, and faulty record-keeping. Memory - personal or institutional - can be a hard road to navigate. "He's so humble and modest, but when we heard his story, we just needed to recognize him." "He's living history," said Englewood Hospital spokeswoman Stephanie Christopulos. The event is open to the public, but an RSVP is suggested: Visit for more information. "I'm overwhelmed, I didn't expect anything at all like this," said Powlis, who will be one of the honorees at the hospital's ninth annual Heart & Soul Music Festival, a celebration of heart health and music that will also feature WLIB radio personality Liz Black, "People Plezzer" DJ Mitch, and several soul and gospel groups.
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