Pioneering black Marines get their badge of courage

[Walt's Daughter]

Pioneering black Marines get their badge of courage

[CaptO]

A couple of comments on the article:

 

1) I don't know what Marine hasn't been told of Montford Point. I do believe we were taught about it in Boot Camp in 1995 and certainly in OCS in 1999. I will have to dig up my Boot Camp books and see. In any case, the Marines are fiercely proud of their heritage and this is a part of USMC history that all Marines know about. I don't know of any Marine who is unfamiliar with this part of our history.

 

2) Case in point, one of the Montford Point Marines (from 1946) actually lives here in Albany, Ga. He was honored at the base uniform pageant and birthday celebration as well as the USMC ball the next night. The reception was only one of "that's great that we can honor him in this way" not "Holy crap! There were Black Marines?" The article seems to indicate that this is a forgotten episode in the past we neglect. Ask any Marine who SgtMaj "Hashmarks" Johnsonwas and they will be able to tell you.

 

 

3) Perhaps this is nit picking, but, "the last military branch"? I thought this article was about the Marines, not the US Air Force.

[CaptO]

All that being said, the Montford Point Marines did do something very brave. They put themselves in a position to be harshly treated by a segregated military that as likely didn't want them there as did. (Not to mention the possibility of going to war.) I was apprehensive enough going to boot camp in 1995; I can't imagine what they were feeling. One thing is for sure, the contributions and steadfast devotion that the black members of the military showed during WWII (before and since) helped tremendously to right the wrong of Jim Crow and other institutionalized racism of America at that time.

[Walt's Daughter]

Great comments. It's nice hearing a Marine's perspective!