Floyd Dade Jr. was born on May 5, 1924, in Texarkana, Texas. He was the son of Floyd Dade and Lexie White Dade. He grew up during the Great Depression before being drafted out of high school into the United States Army during World War II, where he was assigned to the 761st Tank Battalion, an African-American armored unit nicknamed the “Black Panthers.”

As a member of the 761st Tank Battalion, Floyd Dade served in one of the first African American armored units to see combat, operating under General George S. Patton’s Third Army. With the battalion, he fought across Europe during 1944–1945, taking part in campaigns in France, the Battle of the Bulge, and the advance into Germany, and was among the soldiers who helped liberate Nazi concentration camps, including Gunskirchen, at the end of the war.

After the war, Floyd worked for many years in education and community service, serving as an assistant supervisor of school custodians for the San Francisco Unified School District and as a long-time sexton for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and its nursery school. In his later years, Dade became a respected speaker and witness to history, sharing his experiences of combat and the horrors he saw in liberated concentration camps with schools, community groups, and Holocaust remembrance programs. He died on September 27, 2006, and is now buried in the Skylawn Memorial Park, San Mateo, San Mateo County, California, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.legacy.com, www.tellingstories.org