The 366th Infantry Regiment patch
*The 366th Infantry Regiment was created on this date in 1917. This was an all-Black unit of the United States Army that served in World War I and II.
Officers of this racially segregated Regiment included Lieutenant Cleveland L. Abbott, Captain Joseph L. Lowe, Lieutenant Aaron R. Fisher, and Captain E. White. The 366th Infantry was assigned to the 92nd Division and organized at Camp Dodge, Iowa, in November 1917. In World War I, the Regiment served overseas as a part of the 92nd Division, National Army in the Meuse-Argonne Sector, St. Die Sector, and Marbach Sector France. The 366th Infantry was demobilized in March 1919 at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and reconstituted in December 1940 in the Regular Army.
It was activated in February 1941 at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and assigned to the Eastern Defense Command in April 1942. The 366th arrived in North Africa in April 1944 and was attached to the 15th Air Force Service Command for airfield security duties from Sardinia to the Adriatic coast. They arrived in Livorno, Italy, in November 1944 for attachment to the 92nd Infantry Division until February 1945. The 366th was disbanded in Italy in March 1945, and personnel transferred into the 224th and 226th Engineer General Service Regiments.
Colonel Howard Donovan Queen was the WW2 commanding officer. Although the 366th Infantry had been at "combat readiness," after a prolonged period only to guard duty, Queen felt that they needed at least three months for preparation to be "combat ready." Queen wrote a significant request for withdrawal from active command, including his guarded reservations about his deeply held tenets. Despite this, upper officials decided in November 1944 to attach the 366th Infantry to the 92nd Division.
After continuing poor combat performance, including many unauthorized withdrawals upon meeting the enemy, low morale, and malingering, the 92nd Infantry Division was believed by both German and American commands to be fit for only defensive roles. The Division was completely withdrawn from the front in early 1945, with the infantry components of the Division being reorganized from the ground up. It was disbanded in March 1945, with personnel transferred to the 224th and 226th Engineer General Service regiments. Some notable enlisted members of the 366th were Edward W. Brooke III and William L. Dawson.
