Private Van Buren Porcher

            Private Van Buren Porcher was born in 1914 in Alachua County, Florida.[1] Since he was an African American living in the South during the early twentieth century, there is not much information available about his early life. He went to and graduated from grammar school, which was an achievement in its own right for someone with an African American background at that time.² Van Porcher married Taresa May Alridge on March 26, 1933.³ Taresa either died or divorced Van Buren because six years later, Porcher remarried. He married Hattie Smith on October 24, 1939.⁴

            On May 28, 1943, Van Porcher enlisted into the US Army.⁵ His superiors assigned him to the 448^th Quartermaster Truck Company of the 10^th Armored Division.⁶ While we do not have much direct information about what Porcher himself did during his service, we can infer what he did by examining the actions completed by other segregated units. Regular tasks of African American truck units during World War II included transporting food, gas, water, and ammunition to troops on the front lines.⁷

            After a year and a half of serving in the army, enemy forces wounded and killed Private Van Buren Porcher on September 2, 1944.⁸ We do not have conclusive evidence about exactly how he died. The 10^th armored Division went on to participate in the Battle of the Bulge, and was deactivated on October 13, 1945.[9]