The Stewards' Branch

In organizing the Stewards' Branch, the Marine Corps followed the example of the Navy, which had begun before World War I to segregate the enlisted force by channeling blacks away from combat or technical specialties and making them stewards or mess attendants.  Once Captain Madden's formal courses began producing enough graduates, the Stewards' Branch provided cooks and attendants for officers' messes in large-unit headquarters.  Combat experience would prove that duty in the Stewards' Branch could be as dangerous as any other assignment open to blacks.  On Saipan, for example, two member of the branch suffered wounds when the enemy shelled the headquarters of the 2d Marine Division.  On Okinawa, where stewards routinely volunteered as stretcher bearers, Steward 2d Class Warren N. McGrew, Jr., was killed and seven others sustained wounds, one of them, Steward's Assistant 1st Class Joe N. Bryant, being wounded twice.

The Stewards' Branch did not include the cooks and bakers in black units.  Segregation required that African-Americans take over these specialties, beginning at the Montford Point Camp.  In January 1943, Jerome D. Alcorn, Otto Cherry, and Robert T. Davis became the first to cross the divide between assistant cook (at the time the equivalent of a corporal) and field cook (sergeant).