555th Parachute Infantry Battalion (United States)

555th Parachute Infantry Battalion
Shoulder sleeve patch of the Triple Nickle Association
Active	19 December 1943 – 15 December 1947
Country	United States of America
Branch	National Army
Type	Airborne Infantry
Role	Airborne Firefighters
Size	Battalion
Part of	Airborne Command, 82nd Airborne Division
Garrison/HQ	Pendleton Army Airfield, Oregon
Nickname(s)	The Triple Nickles/Smoke Jumpers
Engagements	World War II (Mainland USA)
Commanders
Notable commanders	James M. Gavin (Post World War II)

The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was an all-black airborne unit of the United States Army during World War II.

The unit was activated as a result of a recommendation made in December 1942 by the Advisory Committee on Negro Troop Policies, chaired by the Assistant Secretary of War, John J. McCloy. In approving the committee's recommendation for a black parachute battalion, Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall decided to start with a company, and on 25 February 1943 the 555th Parachute Infantry Company was constituted.

On 19 December 1943, Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, authorized the activation of the company as an all-black unit with black officers as well as black enlisted men. All unit members were to be volunteers, with an enlisted cadre to be selected from personnel of the 92d Infantry Division at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

The company was officially activated on 30 December 1943 at Fort Benning, Georgia. After several months of training, the unit moved to Camp Mackall, North Carolina, where it was reorganized and redesignated on 25 November 1944 as Company A of the newly activated 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion.

The battalion did not serve overseas during World War II, primarily because it never reached full strength for an Airborne Infantry Battalion. In reaction to the German counterattack that began the Battle of Bulge, the Airborne Command considered reorganizing the 555th PIB as a single reinforced Airborne Rifle Company, and sending it to Europe to reinforce the battered Airborne units already there. However, before this could happen the crisis had passed, and the 555th PIB was instead alerted for deployment to the West Coast. The men of the 555th PIB hoped that they would get into the war against the Japanese, but that was not their new mission. According to Sergeant Walter Morris, "It was a secret mission called Operation Firefly. We thought we were going overseas to [Gen. Douglas] MacArthur's theater." It wasn't until they arrived in Oregon, in May 1945, that they learned they would be fighting the Japanese on the fire line in the Western United States.