Lt. Col. Loren Schriner, 215th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, provided opening remarks during the black history celebration held at the Forward Operating Base Marez dining facility in Mosul, Iraq on Feb 18. In his opening remarks, Schriner talked about the rich military history of black American's, specifically calling attention to the all black 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, "Triple Nickel," who became known as the "smoke jumpers" because they made over 1000 jumps into forests to fight fires set by Japanese balloon-carried incendiary bombs.