Triple Nickles – 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion

The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, nicknamed the “Triple Nickles” (using the English spelling of ‘nickel’), was a World War II African American unit of the U.S. Army stationed in Pendleton in 1945. The battalion, first organized in November 1943 at Fort Benning, Georgia, was made up of voluntary transfers from other organizations. Created when the U.S. military was segregated by race, the 555th was the only African American parachute unit.