I looked up Bullard earlier, and he flew with the Lafayette Escadrille. Maybe that's who the black character in the movie is?
I also looked up the LE on Wiki (ok, yeah, I know, not the most accurate source of info). Jean Reno's character for sure IS historical (IMDB lists him as playing the Escadrille's commander, Cpt. Georges Thenault). I haven't tried to match the IMDB character names with any others so don't know how many were real people and how many are fictionalized.
The Iwo Jima film is actually TWO movies, I THINK being done by Clint Eastwood. One is Flags of our Fathers, focusing on the Marines who raised the flag (I don't remember if it's about the REAL group, or the guys who did the second and more famous larger one from the photo). The second is Black Sand, Red Sun or something like that, and focuses on the Japanese and is being filmed IN Japanese with subtitles.
Read a story a while back about how even though there was a language barrier, Eastwood greatly enjoyed working with the Japanese actors, and vice-versa. Both movies are slated for release next year, I think, and AFAIK they were also filmed ON Iwo Jima.