Shoulders to Stand On Marine Corps Heroes from 1942

By LtCol David B. Brown, USMC (Ret.)

Dave Brown with three of the book's Montford Pointers. Platoon Sergeant Charles Foreman, First Sergeant Jack McDowell, and Ambassador Ted Britton at the Twelfth Montford Point Marines Day on August 26, 2021

Shoulders to Stand On: Marine Corps Heroes from 1942 takes a historic look at racism in the Marine Corps initially under the leadership of the Corps' Commandant in WW II who stated in 1941, "It is my unwavering intention to tell the General Board up front that, if it ever was a question of having a Marine Corps of 5,000 Whites or 250,000 Negroes, I would rather have the Whites." Shoulders tells the compelling stories of 18 Marines who become part of the heritage of Black Americans' struggle for equality within the United States Marine Corps. The book focuses on male and female Black-American Marines from WW II to today, who successfully overcame racial challenges encountered in their youth and while on active duty in war and peace. These heroes rise to become general officers, US ambassadors, head of NASA, and cowriter of the US Fair Housing Act of 1968.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 24, 2024
• ISBN: 9798890617255

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Forward by General James F. Amos

Preface

Seeking an Equal Trail

Chapter 1: Racial Equality Formally Recognized

Chapter 2: US Marine Corps 1942

Chapter 3: Montford Point Meets Pacific War Demands

Shoulders Develop

Chapter 4: Sergeant Major Gilbert H. Hashmark Johnson

Chapter 5: Sergeant Major Edgar R. Huff

Chapter 6: James Jim Rundles: Montford Point Drill Instructor

Chapter 7: Platoon Sergeant Charles Foreman: First Colored Replacement Battalion

Chapter 8: Mr. Charles Foreman: More Racial Doors to Open

Chapter 9: Captain Frederick C. Branch: The Corps' First Commissioned Black Officer

Chapter 10: Corporal Theodore R. Britton Jr.: Ambassador in the Making

Chapter 11: Ambassador Theodore R. Britton Jr.

Chapter 12: Private Jack McDowell, USMC

Chapter 13: Sergeant Jack McDowell, USMC

Chapter 14: First Sergeant Jack McDowell, USMC: More Battles to Fight

Standing on Shoulders

Chapter 15: Lieutenant General Frank E. Petersen Jr.

Chapter 16: Major General Gary Cooper

Chapter 17: Major James A. Capers Jr.: Reconnaissance Combatant Extraordinaire

Chapter 18: Brigadier General George H. Walls, Jr.

Chapter 19: Major General Charles F. Bolden Jr.

Chapter 20: Captain Clifford L. Stanley: A Gifted Leader Born into a Racial World

Chapter 21: Major General Clifford L. Stanley: Personal Tragedy Does Not Prevent Rising to the Top

Chapter 22: Lieutenant General Ronald S. Coleman

Chapter 23: Lieutenant General Willie J. Williams

Chapter 24: Sergeant Major Alford L. McMichael: 14th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps

Chapter 25: Colonel Adele E. Hodges

Chapter 26: Chief Warrant Officer-3 Susan Pope

Afterword

Brigadier General Anthony M. Henderson, USMC

Annex A

Congressional Gold Medal

cover.jpg

Shoulders to Stand On Marine Corps Heroes from 1942

LtCol David B. Brown, USMC (Ret.)

Copyright © 2024 LtCol David B. Brown, USMC (Ret.)

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2024

Cover Photograph by Mike McHugh

ISBN 979-8-89061-724-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89061-725-5 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Forward by General James F. Amos

In 1946, with WWII freshly won, then-Secretary of War Johnson, with the full support of President Truman, engineered a plan to significantly reduce the size of the Marine Corps. His plan to move most of its men and equipment over to the Army would essentially make the Marine Corps a guard force for the Navy. With no place else to turn, the World War II hero, General Alexander Vandegrift, took his case before Congress with his famous Bended Knee speech and, in doing so, saved the Marine Corps. Then in 1949, as Commandant, he stated for all Marines to hear and understand, that the Negro Marines are no longer on trial. They are Marines period! With that, he gave every Black American Marine hope—hope that perhaps, at last, they had found a home in the Corps.

When I was a lieutenant colonel, I attended a dinner where a small group of Montford Point Marines were introduced; they were asked to stand so they could be honored. At first, it was easy to simply clap and move on with the evening's events. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't understand their history nor did I have an appreciation for all that took place in our Marine Corps between 1942 and 1949. That changed quickly after I read my first book about these Marines who were being recognized. The more I read about the events leading up to the 1941 Presidential Directive 8802, the integration of the Armed Services, and the follow-on reticence of senior military leaders to open their ranks to fellow Black American citizens, the more confused and ashamed I felt. My Marine Corps was the most disappointing of all.

Promotions followed, along with more formal events to attend, more opportunities to read about and speak to Montford Point Marines, and to hear their stories. Each was different, and some were painful to listen to. I admit to my initial apprehension to speak at the 46th Annual Montford Point Marines National Convention being held on July 30, 2011, in Atlanta, Georgia. I had been the Commandant for nine months. I was briefed that the event would be packed—a full house with original Montford Point Marines, their immediate family members, and generations of their family members all in attendance. I wasn't at all sure how I would be received or if I would be welcomed at all.

Although a bit apprehensive, I decided to wade in and see what might happen. What a wonderful evening it turned out to be! The pride and gratefulness for having been a Marine, for having been a Montford Point Marine, for having endured, and then overcome was evident on every man's face. Hugs, handshakes, and gratitude. The warmth shown between one Marine to another—and to me in particular—was on center stage that night. When it came time for me to speak after dinner, my remarks flowed easily and were heartfelt. I remember saying, My promise to you this evening is that your story will not be forgotten.

As I think back on that evening, I believe I spent time with every Montford Point Marine Dave Brown wrote about in this book with the exception of Second Lieutenant Frederick Branch. Dave skillfully captured the atmosphere across our country in the early 1940s, specifically the politics of President Roosevelt's Directive 8802 and the post-Pearl Harbor sense of patriotism in all Americans, Black and White. Who could blame these young Black men for wanting to serve their country? With a strong sense of pride, they elected to join the toughest and most legendary of military services. My service: the Marines.

The interviews included in Dave's book speak of a time in our country and within our Corps when rampant segregation was simply the way it was. President Roosevelt may have ordered the complete integration of Blacks into the services in 1941, but it was met with anything but a willing spirit. This especially was the case within the Marine Corps. By June 1942, one year after Presidential Directive 8802 had been signed, only sixty-three men of color had been recruited into the Marine Corps. General Thomas Holcomb, the commandant, publicly stated, If it were a question of having a Marine Corps of 5,000 Whites or 250,000 Negroes…I would rather have the Whites.

Interview after interview speaks to train rides loaded with Negro recruits headed to Jacksonville, North Carolina. The young volunteers had to ride in the first rail car that fed the locomotive with coal—hot and filthy with coal dust. White recruits, bound for Parris Island, South Carolina, rode farther back in the passenger cars that were more comfortable and accommodating. Even though the United States was fully committed to wars in both Europe and the Pacific and men were signing up all across America, the Marine Corps did not welcome our Black brothers. We didn't want them in our Marine Corps. We made it as hard and unwelcoming as we possibly could have, and yet they came. They came by the hundreds and then the thousands.

By 1949, over twenty thousand young Black men had become Marines at Montford Point, North Carolina. They had more than just survived boot camp at Montford Point, they had thrived and proven their worth again and again. They served with distinction and courage in the island campaigns of the Pacific, and many of them came home only to reset and head to Korea in 1950–1951. Some twenty thousand young Black men raised their right hand between 1942 and 1949. They truly became the shoulders upon which today's Black American Marines stand…and stand with confidence.

My favorite and the most rewarding decision that I made during my four years as Commandant was leading the Corps-wide initiative within Congress to award the Congressional Gold Medal to America's Montford Point Marines—our Corps' Montford Point Marines!

Senator Kay Hagan and Congresswoman Corrine Brown were the two superstars within Congress who garnered the full support of their colleagues, resulting in the awarding of the medal. The award ceremony, chaired by the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and attended by most of the members of Congress, was conducted—hold onto your seats—in Emancipation Hall in the lower portion of our nation's capital. The setting alone took my breath away. I will never forget that afternoon.

Looking back to 2011 and the Montford Point National Convention in Atlanta, the Marines and their family members with whom I spent that hot July evening have become some of my dearest friends. The memories of that evening, our follow-on gatherings across the south, the Congressional Gold Medal Award Ceremony at the Capital, and the parade at Marine Barracks Washington, DC, in honor of our Montford Point Marines bring fresh meaning to Commandant Vandergrift's direction to his Marines. The experiment with the Negro Marines is over. They are Marines…period.

J. F. Amos

General, USMC (Ret.)

35th Commandant of the Marine Corps

Preface

I have spent most of the past sixty years as a Marine on active duty, including leading a magnificent rifle company in Vietnam, running a Marine Corps Division's alumni association, writing five historical novels about deployed Marines, and publishing three dozen articles in professional magazines on some aspect of the Marine Corps. Upfront, I will unequivocally state that Marines richly deserve our nation's praise for their combat resilience and battlefield successes. That said, Marines are not perfect. Addressing observed imperfections, career Marines strive to make the Corps better than it was when they first stepped into its realm.

In those sixty years, I have served alongside only a few Black Marines for numerous reasons but principally because there are few in the Corps. However, in the past fifteen years, I was fortunate to meet, become acquainted with, and deeply admire several World War II, Montford Point Marines. Those men began joining a segregated Marine Corps in 1942. At that time, the Marine Corps Commandant said, Negroes were trying to break into a club that doesn't want them.

I have been to the nearby, small Montford Point Museum which generated a passion to know more about these fine Americans. The need to identify their contributions to our nation, to the Marine Corps, and to the follow-on generations of Black Marines drove me to write and publish articles about the Montford Point Marines. What was it like for them when they were growing up? It must have been different than it was for me, raised in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the 1950s and 1960s. Then I knew nothing about Jim Crow laws except that they had to do with southern laws affecting colored folks.

The seemingly impossible journey for racial equality in the United States from the time the first enslaved Africans set foot on American soil to our country's entrance into World War II was indeed arduous. In the Pacific theater of World War II, segregated Montford Point Marines wholly demonstrated their much-needed worthiness, substantially contributed to winning the war in the Pacific, drew praise from their White leaders, and earned the grateful respect of most of their fellow Marine combatants. The contributions made in the 1940s by Montford Pointers, Blacks in other branches of the service, and many courageous Black leaders in the civilian community began breaking barriers and presenting opportunities for members of all minorities—Blacks in particular.

Montford Point Marines did not emerge from World War II with racial barriers knocked down and equal opportunities universally abounding. Nevertheless, their successes and continuing efforts have been recognized by the United States Congress, written into laws, and instrumental in enhancing the opportunities for Blacks who followed in their footsteps. Racial equality may never exist, but the pursuit of it must never end. That noted, many egalitarians in the Corps will be satisfied when there is but one color for Marines. You guessed it—green!

I believe that now is my turn to write about the marvelous accomplishments of Montford Point Marines and their inspiration to other Blacks who followed in their footsteps. Although most of the Montford Point Marines have passed on, several remain and contributed substantially to this writing. Shoulders differs from most other Montford Point books as I convey an in-depth look at eight men, their parents, their high school buddies, their Montford Point experience, their World War II sojourn, and their post-Montford Point life. I am profusely grateful to four Montford Point Marines, all in their mid-to-late 90s, for their contribution to the book during my five to seven hours interviewing them.

I discussed Montford Point Marines with a Black, retired Marine lieutenant general, Ron Coleman. Up front, he explained, We stood on their shoulders! Shoulders visits with Lieutenant General Coleman and other Marines who stood on the shoulders of these World War II heroes. We will visit with these fine men and ladies, attempting to learn what it is like to be Black in the Corps and our country. We need to better understand what it means to be them. Hopefully, this book will move us all in the direction of racial equality. The men in Part III have credited their predecessors for fighting for equality. Today's Marines stand on the shoulders of these heroic men. They have influenced many others—regardless of race, sex, religion, and seniority—to understand that equality is the most significant element in bettering the world we live in. That side of the racial coin shines brightly.

The other side of the racial coin is smudged by persons with inferiority complexes who join others also feeling threatened. Together, they possess a bullying psychosis. In grade school, I recall boys one grade above mine picking on a smaller kid in my class. I was bigger than the others my age, and I recall stepping between the bullies and my smaller classmates. Instantly, the threat dissipated. I view bullying as a natural animalistic instinct used by criminals, cults, politicians, and others. It is easy to conclude that mankind would be better off if we reached out to bond with others and jointly seek a better world.

Content-wise, I have two regrets. First, I was unable to include more of these American heroes, particularly younger Black Marines who served bravely in our Corps. Quite noteworthy is that six of them earned the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. Second is observing the continuing national recognition of Black Marine Corps leaders. In August 2022, after pinning on his fourth star, General Michael E. Langley became the sixth commander of US Africa Command. General Langley is responsible for all US military operations and activities in Africa.

A few editorial notes follow. In our society, the verbal or written use of a six-letter word beginning with the letter N is horrible, disparaging, and racist. Among the personal stories given to this author and retold in this book, the N-word is used sixteen times and was told and approved by the chapter's principal character. A few other notes referring to race are noted. In the World War II and Korean War eras, Black Americans were referred to as colored people. Also, I have capitalized Black and White when differentiating between people of different colors. Last, I have used Black Americans as opposed to African Americans due to the multitude of Blacks from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. All that aside, the essence of this book is about how heroes rose above racism as Marines in the service of their country.

Semper Fidelis,

Dave Brown

Part I

Seeking an Equal Trail

Chapter 1

Racial Equality Formally Recognized

Eleanor Roosevelt, the President's well-known liberated wife, wanted Americans to understand that writing and speaking about democracy and the American way without consideration of the imperfections within our system with regard to its treatment…of the Negro encouraged racism.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt passionately campaigned for reelection in 1936. Even though his Democratic Party dominated other parties, the supreme politician Roosevelt continued to garner as many votes as possible. He formed an alliance of voters across the country from different racial, religious, and ethnic groups, referring to it as the New Deal Coalition. The coalition combined southern Protestants, northern Jews, Catholics, and people of color from urban areas, labor union members, small farmers in the middle west and plains states, liberals, and radicals. In exchange for votes, he promised unblemished support of their causes.

In November 1936, Roosevelt won the highest share of the popular and electoral vote in over one hundred years. However, unexpected events distracted the wheelchair-bound president from addressing his many campaign promises. First, from 1936 through 1940, European country after European country fell to the forming alliance of the Axis Pact, consisting of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Second, the US Congress, disillusioned by their futile and costly support of World War I, passed a series of Neutrality Acts prohibiting the War Department from preparing the nation for another near-certain war in Europe. Third, pro-Nazi and pro-communist events were held across the nation.

World events quickly overcame the terms of the Neutrality Acts. They became wholly irrelevant once the United States joined the Allies in the fight against Nazi Germany and Japan in December 1941.

While preparing the nation for war, Roosevelt had to turn his attention to the nation's productivity as local labor unions united, went on strike, and fought management on unprecedented employment issues. Their actions slowed an economy Roosevelt had previously brought out of one unfathomably deep depression and began to introduce another issue: industrial racism.

Mr. A. Philip Randolph, the bold and intellectual president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a new union made up exclusively of Black Americans, even threatened to throw a wrench into Roosevelt's reelection machine when the president refused to issue an executive order banning discrimination against colored workers in the defense industry. Randolph called for 10,000 loyal Negro American citizens to march on Washington, DC, and camp on the White House lawn in protest.

Consequently, in September 1940, before the election, Roosevelt met with a panel of colored leaders to offer better treatment and greater opportunity within the segregated armed forces in return for their support of enlarging and enhancing the military forces and gaining an unprecedented third term.

Roosevelt won the 1940 election with the help of those colored persons who could still exercise the right to vote, mainly living in the cities of the North. Not only did American voters overwhelmingly elect Roosevelt, but he crushed Republican candidate Wendell Willkie 449–82 in the electoral college.

From the California Eagle on June 19, 1941: After the presidential inauguration, on January 20, 1941, at a meeting of Black American leaders in Chicago, A. Philip Randolph seized upon the suggestion that Blacks should march on the White House demanding that the president desegregate the military and provide equal access to jobs in the defense industry. He called for a massive demonstration in the nation's capital on July 1, 1941. Randolph's network of labor connections mobilized efforts in Black American communities across the country; the NAACP, Urban League, and Black fraternities and sororities threw their support behind the march. The campaign captured the imagination of the community, and grassroots support for the March on Washington Movement (MOWM) spread like wildfire.

On June 3, 1941, Randolph sent letters to the President, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the secretaries of War and the Navy, inviting them to address the marchers. Worried that the march would disrupt national morale on the verge of America's likely entrance into the war, and fearing a potential race riot, Roosevelt asked his wife, New York City Mayor LaGuardia, and several White civil rights leaders to intervene. Randolph, however, insisted that unless the president desegregated the Army and provided equal access to defense jobs, the demonstration would take place. By late June, newspapers predicted crowds topping one hundred thousand to march on Washington.

Quietly, moderate Black leaders pushed Randolph to cancel the march. They were hesitant to damage relations with Roosevelt who, among other things, had appointed forty-three Black Americans to government positions. A week ahead of the march, Roosevelt negotiated with Randolph and NAACP head Walter White.

On June 25, 1941, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 banning racial discrimination in hiring for defense industries and requiring all services to recruit colored men into their branch of service. The Fair Employment Practices Commission was created to monitor compliance with the executive order. Roosevelt also pressured the armed forces to provide Blacks with better treatment and broader opportunities as he pledged to do the previous fall.

Figure 1.1. Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry (1941) (File: Lot-3086–15 (28599974796).jpg. Commons Wikipedia.org)

The Army already had one all-colored, infantry division. With a war looming, the naval establishment had marginal interest in carrying out the president's wishes. Into the summer of 1941, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox opposed the recruiting of men of color except as stewards in officers' messes. This actually benefited colored sailors. If they were assigned other specialties, they would have to compete on equal terms with Whites and could not possibly succeed. Nevertheless, because Roosevelt was the assistant secretary of the Navy during World War I, the president took a personal interest in the Navy and Marine Corps. Knox reluctantly proposed recruiting five thousand Blacks for general service in the Navy and Marine Corps and called for a General Board meeting to address his proposal.

The General Board had been used by the Department of the Navy since World War I and was comprised of senior admirals, both active and retired. Collectively, they could be relied upon to deliberate selflessly and objectively on ship design, recruitment, and other issues outside the realm of the structured, active-duty Navy and Marine Corps. The board brought innovation and fresh thinking. The consideration to recruit five thousand colored men was on their agenda for January 1942. Most members reflected on the presidential pressure behind this issue in one manner or another. The Marine Corps Commandant, General Holcomb, voiced his deeply felt misgivings but had to prepare for the meeting.

Chapter 2

US Marine Corps 1942

If it were a question of having a Marine Corps of 5,000 Whites or 250,000 Negroes, I would rather have the Whites.

—General Thomas Holcomb

Five years after being appointed to the Marine Corps' most-senior position, Commandant Major General Thomas Holcomb, adamantly opposed Blacks entering his service. He stated, The Negro race has every opportunity now to satisfy its aspirations for combat in the Army.

Commandant Major General Thomas Holcomb was born in 1879 in New Castle, Delaware, a suburb of Wilmington. Being raised there gave him strong southern roots especially with his maternal grandfather being a commander in the confederate navy. In 1893, when he was fourteen years old, his dad accepted a job in President Cleveland's administration and moved the family to the national capitol. Holcomb was commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1900 and excelled in the Philippines and China as a rising officer. As commanding officer of the Marine Corps's 2d Battalion, 6th Regiment during World War I, Holcomb fought superbly in many battles and became one of the highest decorated Marines who fought in The Great War. He was promoted to commandant in 1936 and had lived in the commandant's home since that time.

Leading Marines throughout the world was a highly productive and fully satisfying experience for Holcomb. Marines submit themselves to Corps values. Marines execute orders rendered to accomplish assigned missions without questioning. They blindly march in the footsteps of their legendary heroes. When engaged in combat, they fight savagely. They expect to come out on top of all engagements with any enemy.

With the Navy's General Board meeting planned for mid-January 1942 to consider joining five thousand colored men, the Corps's leader had concluded that further opposition to Negroes coming into the Marine Corps would only be futile. To other Marine generals who knew the commandant's disposition since the president signed his executive order, he would complain that Blacks seeking to enlist in the Marine Corps were trying to break into a club that doesn't want them. The Negro race, he argued, has every opportunity now to satisfy its aspirations for combat in the Army, which had maintained four regular regiments of Black soldiers since shortly after the Civil War. As a group, they are rebellious, they lack intelligence given the US Army's reports after administering the general classified tests, and they will be challenging for any leader in combat.

Figure 2.1. General Thomas Holcomb-en.wikipedia.org

In that regard, Holcomb knew that since the Civil War, the Army had maintained four regular regiments of Black soldiers. As a result, he and his fellow Marine Corps leaders planned to follow the Army's practice of not putting colored soldiers in charge of White soldiers. These factors and several others that existed at the time led Marine Corps leaders to seek a noncombat role for Black Marines.

Holcomb was well aware of the many other wartime-preparation initiatives made in the past year for his Marine Corps. Would they fight in Europe or elsewhere? How would his Marines enter the battlefield? By landing craft or by parachute? Planners actually considered for what mission should an all black organization be trained. One conclusion made early on and also derived from the Army was that officers born in the South were uniquely suited to command men of color.

Holcomb called upon Colonel Samuel Woods, a gentleman born in South Carolina and graduated from The Citadel, South Carolina's military college. Based on the Army's experience, Woods had been selected to command the training of Black Marines. He reminded the Commandant that the earlier notion of establishing a Messmen's Branch comprised of colored Marines was not supported by the Department of War. Some form of a combat unit would be the only concept they supported. Woods summarized progress made in identifying other missions for the colored Marines. Specifically, he noted that the Marine Corps Headquarters Plans and Policy Division believed a combat defense battalion for one of the Pacific islands would be the most viable option. This organization would be structured based on the anticipated defense missions and most likely require seacoast and antiair artillery, infantry, and tanks. At this point, planners envisioned the battalion end strength to be between 850 to 1,050 men. The officers would be White as well as the initial noncommissioned officers. Plans estimated the added cost of standing up a defense battalion to be between $700,000 and $1,000,000.

As to where the training would be conducted, Holcomb sought an update from Brigadier General Julian Smith. Smith had served as the senior member of a board tasked to identify the location for a proposed east coast training center to conduct large amphibious landings possibly in Europe. Smith's board concluded that North Carolina's east coast, near New River, was the best location for such a base. Due to the war heating up in Europe, his recommendation moved rapidly through the chain of command to Capitol Hill. Congress concurred with the Navy's recommendation, approved the New River site on February 15, 1941, and appropriated $1,500,000 for the survey and purchase of the proposed one hundred-square-mile tract. On April 5, Congress approved an additional appropriation of $14,575,000 for the construction of the base.

While the funds were being appropriated, Smith drafted a conceptual plan for the base's layout and organization. General Holcomb approved that plan later the same month. Smith then relayed the progress made by Brigadier General Seth Williams, a civil engineer responsible for overseeing the Marine Corps' gigantic base construction programs for vast new training centers in North Carolina and California.

Brigadier General Smith then synopsized reports he received from Lieutenant Colonel William P. T. Hill, the on-site officer for the construction of Marine Barracks, New River—later to be named Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune. One of the reports conveyed background information about a campsite nearly adjacent to the Marine Barracks, New River, commonly referred to as Montford Point. The large site had been named after Colonel James Montford, a Civil