Director: Sing me a little bit of your favorite song to sing.

Henry: ♪ On wonderful day like today... I defy any clouds to to appear in the sky... dare any raindrops ...to plop in my eye... On a wonderful day like today.

On a wonderful morning like this.

When the sun is as big as a yellow balloon Even the sparrows are singing in tune On a wonderful morning like this.

On a morning like this, I could kiss everybod I'm so full of love and goodwill Let me say furthermore, I'd adore everybody To come and dine, the pleasure's mine, and I will pay the bill I take this occasion to say That the whole human race should go down on its knees And show that we're grateful for mornings like these For the world's in a wonderful way.

On a wonderful day like today.♪ And so on.

Daddy didn't talk a lot about the Marine Corps when he started talking about their experiences.

I thought, oh, my goodness.

I knew he was strong.

I knew he had principles, but that took it to a whole different level.

You ready?

Director: Yes, sir.

Carroll William Braxton Was born in Manassas, Virginia, in 1924.

Director: Why did you join the Marine Corps?

It was just something different.

Present...ARMS!

Company sound off by number, squad one ONE Atten...HUT!

African Americans, have had a history of service to this country even before was a country on the 5th of March, 1770.

We know it as the Boston Massacre, where Americans, I dont know if we were called Americans, but still British subjects stood up for their rights, and rebelled in Boston and some of the British troop shot and killed some Americans.

And the first one to fall was a gentleman named Crispus Attucks.

He was an African American, was a free man.

So during the Revolutionary War, Blacks served on both sides.

They were promise their freedoms by the British, and it was promise almost nothing by the Americans.

But they served on both sides and some served in what was later known as the Continental Marines.

So there's a history of Blacks serving in the Marine Corps when the Marine Corps first started.

It kind of started and ended there, because after we won our our freedom, if you will, from the British, Blacks weren't allowed to come in the Marine Corps.

But in the Civil War, Blacks and freedmen served.

In World War One Of course, they served in France under General Pershing.

The 469th, the Hellfighters... But Blacks still never served in the Marine Corps.

The Marine Corps, from its inception, has always been an elite and very small organization.

They pictured themselves as being the elite of the elite.

And sometimes we think we are, and it's their club and they want to regulate their clu with people who look like them.

White Marines.

They didn't like Italians being in the Marine Corps.

It was that bad.

When I was a youngster, I didn't really know exactly at the time the Marines would come to Manassas, Virginia.

That's the closest town from base at Quantico.

So they would come to Manassas on liberty.

And see, I was on the farm and we would come into Manassas on Saturday, as a little fella to get ice cream, nickle a cone, and just mes around, walk around, run around while our parents shopped a little bit.

you could just see the Marines.

how they looked, and how they dressed.

See, I grew up kind of on the farm, and the we had a small piece of land - - my parent and we lived in the neighborhood And now its called Corcoran Row And see, there was White and Black in this neighborhood.

We we played together, we worked together.

And the only thing you could tell between us is when they went to their school, we went to our school.

We had one Black high school that supported four counties.

Can you believe that?

Four counties that these kids 30 and 40 miles a day to come to the high school.

♪all together, shout.♪ So whe we graduated from high school, the third of May, we had couple days of mess around home, and they had papers for us to leave Manassas, to go to Alexandria to catch a train, and then from Alexandria to North Carolina, and there was a bus to pick u up to take us to Montford Point.

During the past year, Negroes came into the Corps for the first time at Montford Point, Camp Lejeune, They were receiving a complete and thorough course in combat training.

Well, the reason that Montford Pointers existed at all is because an executive order was signed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

He signed in June of 1941, which forbade discrimination in the Department of Defense.

The Commandant of the Marine Corps at the time, Thomas Holcomb, said, these Blacks are trying to break into a club that does not want them, and he ignored the executive order for close to a year.

He was asked a question if it was a choice of 250,000 African American Marines of 500 whites, what would you prefer?

His answer I rather have the whites.

You gotta be a pretty racist son of a gun not to want a quarter million troops when you know the country is on the verge of going to war.

On December 7th, 1941, Japan, like its infamous axis partners struck first and declared war.

Afterwards.

Costly to our navy, was the loss of war vessels, airplanes and equipment.

But more costly to Japan was the effectiveness of its foul attac in immediately unifying America in its determination to figh and win the war thrust upon it.

And to win the peace that will follow Every Marine is a rifleman.

That's your beginning.

I dont care what you came in there with or what you did before you got in there.

Well, every Marine, the first is a rifleman.

Once you get out of the boot camp, you are qualified to be in combat.

But now that the Marine Corps is kind of knew that they had to accept this Marine of a different color, they didn't know where to train them.

So they bought a tract of land about 8 or 9 miles from Cam Lejeune called Montford Point.

Never heard of Montford in my life.

Didn' even know where we were going, really.

Only thing that hit my mind was Jacksonville.

And when that Jacksonville hit my mind, I thought it was Jacksonville, Florida.

I didnt think it was Jacksonville, North Carolina never heard of Jacksonville, North Carolina.

For the Northerners it was a shock as there was discrimination all over the country.

But it wasn't as overt an visual as it was in the South.

When they saw the signs, you know, “Colored Only or the train was stopped in some place like Wilson, North Carolina, and they couldn't get a sandwich and if they could they had to go to the back because they had a little window in the back, that the Coloreds had to go to, to get a sandwich, to go.

Another major problem i today's South is one which began when her freed slaves were suddenly faced with the problem of becoming self-sustaining.

Today in Americas South are almost 9 million Negroes, for the most part, still economically insecure.

The greatest struggle of the Negro has been against the ravages of disease, due to the conditions of poverty in which he lives.

The incidence of socia and other communicable diseases is high.

A familiar sigh the length and breadth of Dixie as the rural Negro, and the shack, which is his home.

To many a family whose pleasures are few and primitive, there is no greater occasion than Sunday meeting, no greater pleasure than dressing up and going to meeting clothes while the rural Negro lives in the faith that no matter what his life on earth, there is a better life ahead.

So they got a rude awakening.

Many of these Blacks did not know they was going to a segregated facility.

Some of them got on the train thinking they were going to boot camp, and nobody told them specifically where it was.

They assume it was Parris Island, and now I'm looking around.

It's mainly black recruits on this tray.

And I don't know if it really hit them then, but when they got off the bus at Montford Point camp, hit them then.

Because they were greeted, pretty much, like we're greeted now, but with a lot more vigor and animosity.

Bus picked all of us up and we got to Montford Point at the main gate, so I looked out of the bus and there was... looked like three MPs, big, tall, white, empty.

And the first word I heard was: “You N-word, get off the bus.” ♪Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning.♪ I believe they chose that plac because the land was available it was close to a base and it was away from Parris Island and San Diego, and they could pretty much train African-Americans, Blacks, Coloreds, Negroes whatever we'll call it in 1941 without a whole bunch of fanfare and press.

Montford Point, that strip of la was really a camp for World War One.

So very little facilities and whatever was there was dilapidated.

It was nothing i any kind of working condition.

So it was tough going down there.

So the first Marines tha arrived there in August of 1942, it was pretty barren lan and it was covered with trees, and they had to literally cut down the trees, establish a fresh water supply, erect some very temporary, and I'm going to put emphasis on temporary, quarters.

But they were no more then tents or huts.

It was hot.

It was in the summertime.

And there were just ordinary shacks.

And if it rained outside, it rained inside.

And it was a swamp.

We were right on a swamp and rats and snakes all around, wherever.

and there was no air conditioning in 1941, at least not in Marine Corps.

And so these are the conditions they had to bear as far as the environment.

Now, add the fact that they were being trained by all White officers and White enlisted people who did not want to be there.

Many White officers at the time felt that they were assigned to a Black unit, they would be blackballed as being, a nigger lover, simple as that.

They didn't volunteer for that training.

They were assigned that training.

Youve got to remember this is 1941 were what, 60 years removed from the Civil War and Jim Crow still ran King in the South.

they was going to train these Marines in the South.

♪Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning.♪ The treatment was new to me because of once we got in camp and started training, that's all we heard, and all you were told was the N-word and the abuse they did with some of the recruits.

And see, we hav drill instructors on each side And one in the back.

It's almost impossible for every weapon to be direct in order And the drill instructor would be like on the side.

And if he would walk down the line and se one of those rifles out of line, you hear the barrel.

of that weapon would be up by you ear and they would just walk by and hit that barrel upside your ear and blood, whatever, come out, it didn't make any difference, because every day, as you know, they would inspect when you fall out in your platoon they would inspect It was all sand everywhere.

If they just found just one little speck of san theyd make you get out of line, and get down on your hands and knees with your nose and scoop in that sand.

There was a lot of conflict there.

At the North, this was 1940s, Some of the races start to intermingle, and the complexion started to change and [get] lighter.

And in the South, they were still separate, so they kep a lot of the African features.

So in 1941, if you were too light and I was too dark, there was friction before we even said a word.

but amongst the drill instructors, it was equal opportunity brutality.

They didn't give a damn what you look like.

You just were Black.

Director: And how were you treated?

I think they really wanted us to fail because they didn' want Blacks in the Marine Corps.

Director: Tell me about the training.

What was it like?

Well, you see, all them they wasn't my age.

At that time, the draft was from 18 to 45.

And some of these men came in through the Selective Service.

The wives had a lot to do with.

Some of them mayb had separated from their wives.

And when these women outside found out that these men, if they were put in this service, they could get an allotment.

And that's what happened during that time.

A lot of me were actually put in the service just for these ladies to get their allotment.

So, see, I had men there, almost old enough to be my father.

I was just eight, just turned 18 and some of them were up in the 30s and 40s.

So it was kind of tough for the older men.

You still had to come down hard on ‘em.

This is boot camp, by the way.

This is Marine Corps boot camp.

This is a Marine Corps boot camp in World War II.

Its not a cakewalk.

But some of the enlisted took extra pleasure in the power they held.

Many were from the South and was only really two generations, maybe, removed from their grandfather owning people that they were trying to train at the time.

And they grew up in an environment that was a socialization process.

“If it werent for one of you people, my grandpappy plantation, would still be alive.

But he went to go fight and got killed, and we lost everything because of you people.” And so those were the people who were training these African-American Marines.

So you can only imagine the brutality that they suffered because of that.

My face was all beat up from mosquito bites.

The drill instructor would take us right by the swamp just about dusk to dark and make us stand at attention.

So the drill instructor would say, Did you eat?

So wed say: “Yes, sir,” like youre crazy.

And hed say: “Let them mosquitoes eat.” And were just standing there.

All you can do is scrunch your nose, whatever.

Time for furloughs.

Some of the guys that lived out in the cities or wherever they came from... We were just messed up, I put it that way.

Theyd say “Man, I can't go on like this.” And see, they had made us, I guess at the Point we were so honest, so evil.

Some of the guy said: “Look, if my mother said say something wrong I might even curse my mother!” I said, “Well, that's up to you.

I'm going home.

I'm take my eight days because I might not ever get home.” So I took my eight days and I went home because my mother was there.

I walked in the house and she looked at me, and she looked at me, an I said, “Mom whats the matter?” She said, “Well, look at you, you look like you got the smallpox.” I said, “No, mom, that's not smallpox.” I said, “Its mosquito bites.” During the, boot camp training, we decided we need to talk because we were truly...we need So we had a little conversation between the group of us.

We were -- we just didn't know what the outcome was going to be.

So that's why we decided to have a conversation.

And we did say that the Tuskegee Airmen made it, the Buffalo Soldiers, made it, and some of our slaves made it across that water.

And we can make it too.

And other than death, we're going to make it.

Because we got at the point we didn't know what was going to happen to us.

And because they had told us time and time again, “We didn't want you.” “This is a white man's outfit.” “You will never make it in the Marine Corps.” Yeah.

But as far as I can, sit right here and tell you today as bad as we were treated, I don't remember anybody quitting.

That was our determination, to make sure that they said they didn't want us, we couldn't make it.

We were going to make sure that we did make it.

Regardless.

From the inception of Montford Point Camp, all the drill instructors were white.

All the officers were white.

Everybody in charge of anything was white.

But the Marine Corps realized sooner or later, if we accept Blacks long enough, they're going to be promoted.

They're going to be put in positions of leadership.

So why not have a structured and plan instead of us being surprised by it?

They moved us from Montford Point across to a little creek to a little place called Camp Knox.

So we were all over there, so we were wondering something.

Whats going on?

Why are we over here?

And so we were all in formation, and this colonel came up.

He started calling names.

So that was another mystery.

Why he was calling names, we didn't know.

He says: “I know youre wondering why your names were called.” So, “Yes, sir.” He said, “Now, you wer picked to be drill instructors.” And then, my heart leapt and just fell.

I said, “No way I, me, myself could be a drill instructor to treat another man the way they treated me.” So he talked a little bit, and he says, “Now, is anybody in here that don't want to be a drill instructor?” I believe all hands went up.

I can't say for sure but I believe all hands went up.

He said, “Well, you might as well put them down.” He said , “You were picked to be drill instructors and you will be.

So-and-so good drill instructor.” And I gues it could have been my raising.

And the biggest thing was, in my mind, even today, to treat another human b the way you want to be treated.

And I just figured that the militar is something a little different for me that I didn't want or had never done before.

And I figured, well, I'm going to try to do it regardless.

My only thought was, at that tim to make sure that everybody that I have as a recruit that he's in physical condition and know his weapons.

But all this other stuff I wasn't interested in.

The only thing that bothered me was, here I am, just a kid, 18 years old, and then these men was there, 30s and 40s almost old enough to be my father.

If you recruit everybody ou of boot camp, regardless if hes a private, or whatever, you got to say, “Yes, sir.” And that's what happened.

And we had the authority at that time that if you looked at a man that was in his 30s or 40s, that you didn't think he would make it.

We had the authority to fill out a form and make sure he was discharged.

And I thought that was I gues that was one of the good things that I thought about the Marine Corps at that time.

Some of the Black drill instructors, as we went to the old NCO leadership school, some of them turned out to be as bad, maybe worse tha some of the white instructors.

Maybe not as mean spirited as white but they were doing it to better the recruits.

While I believe the white drill instructors were doing it to keep the recruits down.

So that's the difference.

Two men came to me one day and they started talking and said, “Sir,” said, “we left home and we didn' even know where we were going.” I said, “What do you mean?

How do you get here?” These two men said the sheriff came out and picked us up and brought us to the train station.

And I said, “Well, hell, what about the Marine Corps?” They said, “Sir, we never heard of the Marine Corps.” They said, “We knew about the Army, we knew about the Navy, Never heard of the Marine Corps.

I said, “Well how did all this happen?” He said, “Sir...” This is going to shock you.

1944, early ‘44, he says, “Sir, we were on a plantation in Mississippi.

Didn't even know we were free.” ‘44!

Of course, I couldn't show my sorrow or grief.

Almost cried.

But every afternoon they had to go to the, admin buildin where they had a little school for them to learn how to read and write.

They turned out to be good Marines.

One afternoon which was unusual to be called, and then all of a sudden, here comes a long big convertible limo.

President Roosevelt.

So when he pulled up and stopped he said, “Men, I have a short speech to make.” He said, “You men have broken records that the White Marines have had for years.” And he said, “As far as I'm concerned, you just as good as any Marine that put that uniform on.” “Send them overseas.” America goes to war.

Men of the Army, Navy and Marines reinforce the battlefront on six continents to save the homes and ideals of free men from Axis domination.

So what they did, when they would have enough a platoon to go overseas, they would pick a drill instructor to go with that platoon as ‘Acting Platoon Sergeant.

Acting.

No, no rank, just “acting.” So that's how they really started sending Black Marines overseas.

I was one of those acting platoon leaders.

that went overseas.

Late spring of 1944.

Now the Montfort Point Marines were included in the invasion plans because they acquitte themselves pretty good overseas.

They were really never tested in battle because they never had the opportunity to be tested in battle.

And when they got overseas, they joined right i combat with those white Marines, and they welcomed them, I mean, really welcomed them, And they found the Black Marines could do anything that they could do.

First, I went to a little island called Banika.

Well, that was just a dropping off point.

Wasn't too much.

And just little skirmishes.

here and there, but it wasn't much.

Director: And after Banika, where did you go?

Saipan.

Director: What was Saipan like?

Hell.

So when the landing takes place the landing is always, you know, D-Day and D-Day is usually a departure date.

We were going to cross that line of departure.

They were included in the D-Day plans to Saipan in June of ‘44.

Well, day and night, you hear firework going all day and night.

And the biggest thing you ca think of is trying to stay alive Youre on a ship, and they usually bombed the islan maybe a couple of weeks or so, airplanes and ships, But the Japanese are so dug in with cement bunkers because evidently, they must have been preparing for war for years and years before we got there.

And that was your biggest problem.

And then see, we'd have t get out of these landing barges.

And sometime you wade into water up to here to get to the island, and they would be just sitting there waiting.

1944 when they landed.

The Japanese have already suffered some pretty bad losses and los some pretty significant bases, and they were determined to hold on to Saipan from day one.

So they wanted to stop the Marines at the beach.

So this was the first time the Montford Port Marines actually came under fire.

Direct fire, not a skirmish, not “I follow some footprints into the jungle because I thought they may have been Japanese.” They're online.

But on D-day, the day, and that's the most dangerous day, the heaviest casualties.

And when you think about it, and when they're going aboard, you know, in 15 to 20 waves, and you're on the first wave.

I hate to even think about it.

yeah, because these boys they wanted to prove themselves.

But you couldn't dodge them bullets, you know, Its one of them type of thing.

So it's... The death smell was the worst smell And we had to, there was a lo of us, we had to howl in there.

Because see, as a Marine, you don't leave anybody behind dead or wounded.

You make sur that every man is accounted for and you get that terrible smell.

And that's day and night.

You don't get over that.

And then you had my buddies destroyed.

And that's.... The Japanese were just waiting.

And you -- So, youre walking an one of your buddies drops here, One drop over here from wounds they got.

That's it.

That's enough.

That's enough.

I've known, many of them.

One in particular was Ken Rollock.

And when asked about his experiences about being a Black Marine in combat, his response was, “I didn't know they were White or they didn't know I was Black.

They were firing, and I was firing.” And that's when he undergo what we call ‘baptism under fire.

So you're not worried about race or religion.

You know, I'm trying to stay alive, and I'm trying to keep the guy next to me on my flanks alive too.

I put it that way.

It was overseas.

We became one.

Was no Black/White.

Was no black bullets, whit bullets, everything was the same In other words, you were just in a complete new country, a new world.

Ill put it that way.

We got along fine.

I can tell you the time at Montfort Point, I... just so happened one I think was one Saturday, and it was real hot, and we got a chance to get liberty.

I had a Windsor tie knot you know, and we were all in line.

And so this white MPs.

So a couple of the walk up to me as was always ‘boy or something, you know, “Boy what are you doing with that necktie?” And he said: “Get outta that line!” And that time right then and there there was some more White Marines in the back, and they'd been overseas.

And when that MP started on me them white Marines in the back jumped on them MPs.

Started calling them names and tell them, leave that man alone.

leave that Marine alone.

In other words, by the time the MPs got back there with these guys, I had got that necktie straightened out and got on the bus.

There was another incident: the bus driver saw all of us in line.

We were all mixed up, you know.

So the bus driver talke to one of the Marines up front, and he says: “I cant let them get on the bus.

You gotta let the White Marines get on the bus first.” So this Marine says no.

Says, “uh-uh.” He says: “were going to ge on the bus just like we in line.

Said: “Ain't gonna be no White and Black here.

These men got to be back to camp just like I have to be back to camp.

The Marine said: “Are you going to drive the bus?” He said, “No.” He said, “Well, then give me the keys.” So the Marine got the key.

He got the bus started, and he drove us back to Jacksonville and left the bus driver standing there.

Thomas Holcomb is now gone, thankfully, and a new guy came i named General A.A.

Vandergrift.

Vandergrift was more progressive, if you will.

But when he found out how the Marines performed on Saipan, his words were: “The Negr Marine is no longer on trial.” They are Marines.

Period.

And that statement really lifted the morale of the Montford Point Marines.

Finally!

Finally, the Commandant of the Marine Corps understood what they were doing and recognized it.

So that's how we had, well, I might say, integrated from that way back in early ‘43 to 44 or whatever later to integrate as one.

They didn't let nobody mess with us out in the street.

And it really started island by island, battle by battle being more and more accepted in the Marine Corps, and the Montford Pointers, just like Americans, had a lot of hope that, yeah, well, we done it again.

We did it in the Civil War.

We did in World War I. We protected this country again.

Things are gonna get better.

And we all know they didnt.

And that's the heartbreaking part of this story.

Where they can fight, die, bleed, and come back for their country and they couldnt get a sandwich in some places or a Pepsi.

And they tell us stories stories of the trains going cross-country and, bac then they had to stop for water.

When they stopped for water, you would get off the train to relieve yourself or to stretch your legs or to get a meal.

And the Blacks were told, stay on train.

But the ones they get off the train and they were looking in some of these restaurants, particularly in the South New Orleans We had a number of German P.O.W.

that was actually allowed to go out in town to get meals.

So German P.O.W.s would eat meals in restaurants that the Blacks couldn't eat.

I cant imagine it.

All this is buried in the Montford Pointers.

So many of them, when they got out the Marine Corps after World War II, or whenever their time was up.

They went home and forgot about it.

You know, I did my duty.

I did the best I can.

At least I got some benefits.

I've got the GI Bill.

Maybe I could buy a house.

Maybe I can go to college.

But I'm not going to talk about the experiences because they are too hurtful.

And then, I got out in ‘46 because I had graduate from high school.

So I was working in th government and going to school.

And I got this in 1950, got this nice little letter.

And I looked at this and said: “Now wait, this is from the government.” Now what is this?

So I open up the letter and all of that letter said, was: “Report to Quantico.” Thats all it said.

America was in a happy mode.

We were really building up the country.

We were finally making automobiles again.

We hadn't made any automobiles in a couple of years.

We were making tanks and jeeps.

During, June 1950, where the Chinese and some Northern Koreans crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea.

We were caught off guard.

So when they crossed over, America quickly realized that they neede to get some troops over there.

But they didn't have the troops.

This is war.

War, and it's masses.

War, and its men.

See, from 1945 to ‘46 or so, we had about six or maybe eight divisions and they had disbanded all except two.

Nobody thought there was going to be another war, nothing.

The Marine Corps had to quickly, quickly build up again.

And the best way to build up fas is to first to call up the reserves.

Instead of recruiting people, send them to recruit training, advanced school and all that.

“Hey, we got a whole bunch of veterans that just fought the war to end all wars.” “Let's give them a letter, and then, most Korean veterans referred to it as their greeting letter or their welcome back letter.

We miss you.

Come on back.

What bothered me later was the reserve units that see, they weren' sending these kids to boot camp.

They were just going to camp on weekends.

Some of them didn't know one end of a rifle from the other, but they calle all of them back to active duty.

And they sent us all to Korea.

I reported to Quantico and there was a bunch of guys in the room.

And well, at that time I think might have been about 4 or 5 Black guys and everybody else was White.

So were all looking and wondering whats going on?

So here comes this old doctor.

All he did was walked in, look, walked and looked.

He says, “Anybody have to be led in here?” So then we looked at him.

They were no.

So he just kept walking and looking, walking and looking.

He says, well, lets see, i looks like everybodys eyesight alright.

So he got in here somewhere, though.

And he just kept walking looking, walking and looking.

He said, “Well, your heart's alright because all of you alive, that's your physical.” He aint put his hands on nobody or nothing.

He said, “Thats your physical.” And the guys said, “Wait, wait.

Look, see...” I'm still young.

Single; I wasn't though.

But a lot of these guys were older.

They said “Wait, wait, wait a minute, Doctor.” “Look, I'm married.” “Wait, look, look, I just started a business” See, because these old guys were in World War II, now.

A couple of the guys even had disability.

[They had] papers [and] said “Look, Doc, I'm on disability.” He says, “I don't give a damn what you got, or what youre doing You have your ass back here in ten days, and if there's anything wron with you, theyll find that out at Camp Lejeune.” Montford Point Marines that had served in Worl War II, some of them in battle, Now theyre sergeants, theyre staff sergeants, theyre gunnery sergeants.

Theyre senior people.

They've been around since ‘42 to Korea.

That's eight years.

And of that eight years, four years was in battle.

So these are some senior guys here.

And everything about the Montford Pointers from the initial serving to today is about progress.

And you got to take steps in progress.

And that was an important step.

Well, if you've been any place thats about 30 or 40 degrees below zero, that's what Korea was like.

And when they invaded Korea we were right there with them.

And it was frostbite and freezing, and... some of the weapons wasn't working right.

The seas got higher and higher, and the storm becomes a veritable blizzard.

This is not an unusually heavy storm.

It is typical winter weather in the Northern Sea of Japan.

Although air operations are halted during the height of the storm, flights from snow and ice covered decks are becoming routine.

The planes are covere to protect them from the storm.

Combat maintenance of the Corsairs and Panther jets continue through the storm.

The Navy report the typical Korean temperatures in the northern area average 11 degrees above zero during November and five degrees below zero during December.

This is a severe test for carrier planes.

During World War II most carriers were in the milder climate of the South Pacific.

Only thing that we did not have: clothes for that kind of weather experimentatio and refrigerated laboratories, as well as in the Arctic itself, have given US troops newer and better ways of fighting the weather.

The Marines were very ill-prepared.

We didn't have any cold weather gear!

Cold weather boots?

No way!

We didn't have anything cold weather.

They went over there with the same gear they fought in the Pacific with.

Incheon, and the Chosin Reservoir was probably the two significant battles that America remembers.

And many Montford Pointers served there.

And when we invaded Incheon, It was Incheon and what we called it, they called it Frozen Chosin.

That's when the Chinese decided to enter the war.

And boy, did they enter the war in great numbers.

I mean, overwhelming numbers.

And they had the Marines surrounded around the area called the Chosin Reservoir.

Back in the States, newspaper are filled with black headlines.

‘Trapped is the big word.

The Marines are trappe at Chosin Reservoir, and General MacArthur has a new war on his hands.

At this stage of the campaign, very few able bodied Marines kno just how bad their troubles are.

A few thousand Chinese and some harsh weather.

It's not the end of the world.

But one group of men know for certain how bad things are.

Fox company holding Toktong Pass.

Of all the units around the reservoir, they are closest to annihilation.

220 Marines climbed a hill three days ago.

Half are already casualties.

And, what we were told that when we would invade the Army was supposed to be flanking us.

We got up there so far and things got so bad the Army stopped and they left us out there all by ourselves.

So that's what happened.

We had because we had casualties and wasn't whatnot.

I lost an awful lot of good friends and I felt bad for them and their families.

Some of them died awful slow and miserable deaths.

The only time that I felt really bad about them dying is when I thought that back in the States, Korea was just a little war.

Then I felt that maybe these poor guys died for nothing.

The Chosin Reservoir, even though it wasn't a decisive military victory, is one of the most organize retreats that you've ever seen.

Because we were defeated.

They knew they had to get to the shor onto the ships for evacuation, and they had to fight their way out of the Chosin Reservoir under the most extrem conditions imaginable in combat.

On the last day of November, the order comes: Pull back to the sea.

Head south for Hungnam Harbor with all possible speed.

The Marines take this order hard.

From Chado Cherry to Guadalcanal From Tarawa to Iwo Jima, Marines have never fought in any direction but forward.

So then we go.

We went back to the same old tactic after things cut.

We got every Marine out o there, dead or alive, whatever.

Got them all out of there... yeah.

Director: Why would you fight for a country that's treating you that way?

I just thought it was my duty.

And maybe things will be better when this is all over.

As far as we are concerned.

You know, Blacks, are concerned, because see, I had uncles in World War I, and even Blacks in every skirmish, or war type that the United States has had since there's been the United States.

There's been black men involved, and still we're being dogged as if we're not human.

And that's just the way I was raised up.

Being raised and living in colored skin.

My parents taught me lif is not always going to be fair, but you have to keep the faith and keep pushing forward.

When I first started in Richmond, Virginia, there was one black man and one black woma at all of the TV stations there, and someone said, why don't you try radio and work on your voice projection and that's what I did.

I di radio news before I got into TV, and when I worked at MSNBC and, you know, I expressed how much I loved it.

It was very interesting because there were probably six of us who resembled each other, and we were all said to highlight our hair, and we were told, “it softens your look.” But what my parents taught me was to treat people with respect.

My dad constantly tells me when he hears me speak up about something, he'll tap me on my arm and say, okay, “be kind, now.” You know, we're not...we're no being aggressive about an issue.

“Okay, be kind, now.” You have to be nice to people.

And he's a Southern gentleman from beginning to end.

I have watched my parents grieve the death of my brother.

I watched my dad grieve the death of my mom.

Those were the only time when I saw him choke up or cry.

But talking about Saipan, that's probably number three.

They were fighting for a country that did not respect them as first class citizens, but they were defending the liberties of everybody in America.

That stuck with me becaus I thought, “Mm, could I do that?

My mom passed away in 2014.

She was blessed to live long enough to see them.

Awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the ceremony was held in the brand new visitor center that is in the basement of the Capitol.

I think most of the guys were just numb because they couldn't believe the time had arrived for them to be honored.

I think we have progressed, but I don't consider myself just because they were there, they were heroes.

And I figure that we were born and raised in this country.

Why shouldn't we be entitled to everything other countrymen have?

If you think of 400 years that Black people gave to this country and we were beaten, lynched and everything, maybe for no reason at all.

And how many people got rich off our back in this country.

And we didn't get a penny.

So I wouldn't say we were heroes.

I just say we were good patriots.

I'm just saying that.

And maybe that's the way I felt that things might be better if we if I go in the fight I say, “well, this is my country I dont have no other country!” And sometimes I wonder... yeah.

Director: Wonder what?

If it's even getting worse.

I still can't get over all this killing and stuff that's going on.

I just.

But maybe one day it'll be better.

I don't know.

I hope so.

I hope so.

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