Real Hero Report | February 2020 | 2
Segregation and Race Relations:
Ambassador Britton: While waiting for supplies, we were
asked to bring back bodies and the wounded from the front. So,
the same fellas who looked down on us on stateside, suddenly
up to us in the worst way because they were suffering all kinds of
wounds. We could have dropped them or dumped them or kicked
them. But because of their treatment, they began to call us “Black
Angels”.
Corporal Pack: When I was on Saipan, I was with white guys.
We had separate tents and latrines, but as far as segregation goes,
when you are in combat that is gone.
Ambassador Britton: It is often overlooked that every company
of the camp. His name was Colonel Samuel A. Woods, Jr. and
was much loved by the guys. He was from South Carolina and a
graduate of the Citadel. At one point, one of the fellas had been
roughed up downtown in Jacksonville. The guys were really at the
blow up the town and when the cooler heads prevailed, they said
no, we will get the Colonel in trouble. That was the only reason
they did not go there and riot was because of their respect for
the Colonel. Getting him in trouble was just something that they
didn’t want to do.
Corporal Pack: We were packed and ready to invade Japan when
they dropped the atomic bomb. We were waiting and playing
around and I broke my ankle. My sergeant would not let me go
because of it and they shipped me home to the Naval hospital in
California. I did not see my sergeant and others until the Montford
Point reunion.
I went back to the steel mill. Another fella and I agreed that we
year and a half. We couldn’t get jobs as an electrician because of
our color. They didn’t want blacks to become electricians because
they made a lot of money.
I went to civil service and the basic pay was the same. That
was in 1949. I worked through all of the titles, and I took the
exam, but didn’t get promoted. Another guy did, but my score was
higher than his, but I didn’t get the job. That is when I realized
what color meant.
around and look out the window rather than face you. If he would
him.
Ambassador Britton: Many of the men came from the South.
They were accustomed to being differential and being meek and
humble and sometimes stepping off a sidewalk and speaking
lowly and be a little meek and humble. Once they were in the
Marine Corps, you stood erect and look a person in the face, in the
eye. When you spoke, you couldn’t mumble. You had to speak up
to be heard. They were asserting their manhood as Marines. These
are the kind of men that came back to society. They were men
who could have easily gotten into trouble because they were now
accustomed to standing and looking at you, asserting themselves.
We made a new man out of 50,000 men.
Corporal Pack: A fella and I were in Detroit down on Grand
River Avenue, and we decided to go get something to eat. We
went in there, the waitress brought us water and took our order.
Continued on next page
“Breaking a tradition of 167 years, the U.S. Marine Corps started
African American volunteers began their training 3 months later as
members of the 51st Composite Defense Battalion at Montford Point,
a section of the 200-square-mile Marine Base, Camp Lejeune, at New
shown here.” N.d. Roger Smith. 208-NP-10KK-1. (Photo courtesy of the
National Archives)
“Carrying a Japanese prisoner from stockade to be evacuated and
treated for malnutrition. Iwo Jima.” February 23, 1945. Don Fox. (Photo
courtesy of the National Archives)