KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On the world stage, he was Papi Gates, a commander in the 761st Tank Brigade.
But to Gary and Anita Maltbia, he was someone who meant so much more.
“He was Uncle Charlie," his niece Anita recalls. “And I still have to chuckle at that.”
Uncle Charlie always had a passion for the military and service. The Maltbias showed me and my photographer Al Miller a picture of Charlie Gates in his ROTC uniform while he was a student at Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri, in the 1920s.
After graduation, he would devote his life to serving our country, in segregated units.
“We happen to know Uncle Charlie,” Anita said. “But there are so many stories of the courage and the valor with which people — Black people — fought for this country.”
In World War II, when so many American tanks were depleted and the military had nowhere else to turn, they called on the 761st, which included Colonel Charles "Uncle Charlie" Gates.
“Patton told them, 'We’re taking a chance on you guys,'” Gary recalled to me. “'The whole country will be looking at you.'”
“When you talked about his military history, Charles Gates would light up and just tell you so much about Europe and the Battle of the Bulge and all they had to go through,” Anita adds.
The 761st Tank Brigade was the first and only Black Tank Battalion during World War II. Their story has rarely been told.
They liberated Jewish concentration camps and helped win the war—with a Kansas City native, Colonel Charles Gates, at the forefront.
“He was the most decorated officer in the Charlie Company,” Gary recalls. “He loved talking about the 761st Tank Brigade, and all the stuff they went through in Europe, and then coming back home and having to fight this war back here. That’s where the Double Victory, V, came from. Victory over there and then fighting for victory over here.”
In the Battle of the Bulge, the 761st was there. The battle back home for racial equality, the 761st was there.
Among his many accolades, Colonel Charles Gates was the first Black person in Missouri to receive Knighthood in the Order of Saint George.
“He was a man of achievement,” Anita proudly reflects. “And he didn’t wear it on his chest.”
Charlie Gates didn’t wear it on his chest. But “Uncle Charlie,” as he’s affectionately called, is a giant. And on this Black History Month, we stand on his shoulders.
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