"Troopwo Desegregates The Modern US Army" Topic

Stay with me here.

A week or two ago I asked advice for painting some eighties reinforcements for US army. Eurekas' modern US in NBCw gear. Replacing the heads with fritz kevlar helmets and adding a butt pack they look fairly good with ll the M16A1s, M60s and LAW rockets. The consensus was to stick with woodland paint scheme.

I have finally decided to stop being a lazy painter and make the troops a genuine mix of skin tones. NO,,,not like those Tamiya guides of seventy-three shades to paint a 1/35th scale face,,,,but to make the troops a multiple shade of skin tones as in ethnicity.

I admit, as a lazy painter, normally I just stuck to ruddy flesh colour or some such and did the lot. So today I figure beside the caucasion tones to add some colour for the african American tones. Both a very dark as well as some lighter shades.

While I have a platoon of modern African Union troops and another of Kenyans, I have always stuck to just painting the entire lot the same skin tone until now.

So, now I get to declare that I am officially de-segregating the US Army with this lot.

Do you mix skin tones in your troops or keep them the same for the whole batch?

IS ten to twenty percent about right for the mix of African-American troops?
Remember, it was the eighties.

I use mixed skin tones for modern and sci-fi forces also.

Yes, after the Korean War the US Army should include between 1/4 to 1/3 of darker skin tones. Particularly in the infantry.
Hail to all my old comrades in arms of all colors and ethnic backgrounds. We were all once soldiers (and young)!

Just took a look at the photo of my old platoon in Korea, summer of '86. Of 26 men in the photo, five are African-American, one is Asian-American, and one is South-Asian American (Private Gowardia, how did life treat you I wonder? He tried to stump me with "Sir, I bet you never even heard of my religion – I'm a Zorastrian." It blew his mind when I dropped the names of Ahura Mazda and Ahriman…). This doesn't count the two KATUSAs.

So there's a sample of one.

So 20-25% sounds about right.
Thanks everyone!

15-20% seems right for the 70-80s

In 1985 almost 30% of the army's enlisted ranks were black soldiers, and almost 10% of the officer corps.

Enlistment rates are one thing, actual duties are another.

That said, both my Vietnam war US and my future war US are well mixed at about the 20 to 30% range.