ShareThisBy BOB KERR
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
There was a brief course in Marine Corps history at Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Va. It included familiar things _ Iwo Jima, Chesty Puller, the Chosin Reservoir. But it didn't include the story of how Harold Martin became a Marine, and it should have.
When Martin told me his story last week, I was embarrassed not to know it. He showed me the invitation he received to a private screening of a documentary at the University of North Carolina Wilmington on Tuesday. It's called The Marines of Montford Point: Fighting for Freedom.
Martin, who is 82, was one of the Marines of Montford Point. That was the part of Camp Lejeune, N.C., where he went for boot camp because he's black and blacks weren't allowed to go to the traditional training depots at Parris Island, S.C., and San Diego. Actually, blacks weren't allowed to go anywhere in the Marine Corps on the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor when Martin went to a Marine recruiting station in New York City.
"I felt sorry for the corporal there," said Martin. "He had to tell me 'I'm sorry, but no Negroes or colored.' "
The world turned upside down for Martin that day.
"All those stories about Marines. I wanted to be one."
The absurd, discriminatory injustice didn't last. With people like First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt pushing for change, the Marine Corps opened its brutal opportunities to blacks. And Martin headed for Montford Point.
"We were just glad to get there. We knew they didn't want us, but we were determined to prove we were as good as the next guy and better than most."
Martin and his all-black unit shipped out of Norfolk, Va., late in 1943. They were going to Hawaii, then Saipan and Okinawa. Martin remembers unloading ammunition and water and other supplies on the beaches, then heading back to the ship for more.
After the war, he wanted to reenlist. The Marine Corps, for all its hardships and lingering segregation, was a good life for him.
Then the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, and Martin saw other possibilities. He was a pretty fair third baseman. He remembers playing baseball on Okinawa after the island was secured. He went to a tryout with the New York Giants. He was assigned to their minor league team in Trenton, N.J., where there's a very good chance he would have played with Willie Mays.
Then, war broke out in Korea. He was called back to the Marines and away from baseball.
Korea left him with shrapnel in his shoulder and left thigh. It also left him with the continuing desire to make the Marines a career. But he was stationed in South Carolina when he got home. Old racial attitudes lingered. And after two wars, he wasn't about to let the insults pass.
He says he was insulted one time too many. "I just lashed out."
He doesn't offer details, but it was the end of his time in the Marines.
He worked in a warehouse for a lot of years. He moved to Providence in 1994. And a half-century after leaving the Corps, the pride of his hard-earned place in the Marines endures. He will recall a man with whom he served: "He was a damn good Marine," he will say. With others, he is not so kind.
On Tuesday, he will be in North Carolina to see the story of the Montford Point Marines. It is his story.
"I'm just so damn proud to be a Marine," said Harold Martin. "I want everyone to know."
Everyone should know, including those training to be Marine officers.
