This encyclopedia details the participation of individual ethnic and racial minority groups throughout U.S. military history. Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the U.S. Military: An Encyclopedia is unique in its coverage of nearly all major ethnic and racial minority groups, as opposed to reference works that have focused only on individual ethnic or racial minority groups. It acknowledges the military contributions of African Americans, Asian Americans, French Americans, German Americans, Hispanic Americans, Irish Americans, Jewish Americans, and Native Americans. This timely work highlights the individuals and events that have shaped the experience of minorities in U.S. conflicts. The work provides a comprehensive encyclopedia covering the role of all major ethnic and racial minorities in the United States during wartime. Additionally, it considers how the integration of servicemen in the U.S. military set the precedent for the eventual desegregation of America's civilian population.

“An incisive, readable account of a group of National Guard tankers who fought in the Philippines in the opening phase of America’s war in the Pacific.” —Robert S. Cameron, Ph.D., military historian and author of Mobility, Shock, and Firepower: The Emergence of the U.S. Army’s Armor Branch, 1917-1945 The American Provisional Tank Group had been in the Philippines only three weeks when the Japanese attacked the islands hours after the raid on Pearl Harbor. Sent north to meet the Japanese landings in Lingayen Gulf, the men of the PTG found themselves thrust into a critical role when the Philippine Army could not hold back the Japanese. When General MacArthur ordered the retreat to Bataan, the PTG proved itself indispensable. During early months of 1942, the light tanks of the PTG patrolled Bataan’s beaches, encircling and destroying Japanese penetrations and small amphibious landings. By April 1942, the situation had become untenable, and 15,000 Americans, along with 60,000 Filipinos, surrendered in one of the worst defeats in U.S. military history. The Provisional Tank Group ceased to exist, and its men endured the Bataan Death March, the torture and starvation of POW camps, the hell ships that took them to Japan and Manchuria for slave labor, and the Palawan massacre. In an evocatively written book, Donald L. Caldwell reveals the largely ignored role of tanks in the Philippine campaign. Conducting impressive primary research to bring to life the combat history of the PTG, Caldwell has dug deeper to tell the stories of soldiers from each of the group’s six companies, recounting their service from enlistment, training, and combat to imprisonment, liberation, and return home. “Remarkable . . . [A] well-told history . . . highly recommended.” —Jay A. Stout, LtCol (Ret), USMC, author of Air Apaches