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• Marines honor African-Americans who enlisted amid segregation

Montford Point Marines watch as they are recognized during a ceremony held at Camp Pendleton, California, on Nov. 10, 2011. In a segregated America, from 1942 to 1949, about 20,000 blacks were trained as Marines at Montford Point, in a separate facility from whites, in San Diego, California.

Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times/MCT

SAN DIEGO -- The Marine Corps and the Montford Point Marine Association are looking for African-Americans who trained from 1942 to 1949 at the segregated Marine facility Camp Montford Point.

Legislation to award the original Montford Point Marines with a Congressional Gold Medal was signed by President Barack Obama in November. An award ceremony is set for spring.

To be counted among the original Montford Point Marines and receive a replica medal, documentation such as the DD214 or discharge paperwork is required, officials said.

Those with questions about the process should contact Joe Geeter of the Montford Point Marine Association at (610) 495-3619.
More than 20,000 African-Americans trained at Camp Montford Point in Jacksonville, N.C. The camp was closed as a training facility when the U.S. military was racially integrated by presidential order.
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Distributed by MCT Information Services

 

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