Two

of

Those Who Succeeded

Two of the black Marines who overcame every challenge, Edgar R. Huff and Gilbert H. Johnson, became legend among the men of Montford Point.  Both grew up in Alabama, and ultimately would marry twin sisters, but their military backgrounds could not have been more different.  Huff's service began when he joined the Marines Corps, but Johnson had served in both the Army and Navy before he reported to Montford Point.

Gilbert H. 'Hashmark' Johnson

Gilbert H. Johnson earned the nickname "Hashmark" because he wore on the sleeve of his Marine Corps uniform three of the diagonal striped, called hashmarks, indicating successful previous enlistments.  Born in Mt. Hebron, Alabama, in 1905, he joined the Army in 1923 and served two three-year hitches with a black regiment, the 25th Infantry.  In 1933, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve as a mess attendant, serving on active duty in officers' messes at various installation in Texas.  He entered the regular Navy in May 1941 and had become a steward second class by 1942 when he heard that the Marine Corps was recruiting African-Americans.

With infantry experience ranging from company clerk to mortar gunner and squad lead, Johnson felt he was ideally suited to become a Marine.  As regulations required, he applied to the Secretary of the Navy, via the Commandant of the Marines Corps, for a discharge from the Navy in order to join the Marines.  He received the necessary permission and reported to Montford Point on 14 November 1942, still wearing his steward's uniform.

As he anticipated, he possessed vitally needed skills that resulted in his being chosen as an assistant drill instructor and later a drill instructor.  He ended up supervising the very platoon in which he had started his training.  Looking back on his days as a DI, Johnson conceded that he was something of an "ogre" on the drill field.  "I was a stern instructor," he said, "but I was fair."  He sought, with unswerving dedication, to produce "in a few weeks, and at most a few months, a type of Marine fully qualified in every respect to wear that much cherished Globe and Anchor."  In January 1945, he became sergeant major of the Montford Point Camp and in June of that year joined the 52d Defense Battalion Guam, also as sergeant major, remaining in that assignment until the unit disbanded in 1946.

His subsequent career included service during the Korean War.  He retired in 1955 after completing a tour of duty as First Sergeant, Headquarters and Service Company, 3d Marines, 3d Marine Division.  He died in 1972.  Two years afterward, the Marine Corps paid tribute to his accomplishment by redesignating the Montford Point Camp as Camp Gilbert H. Johnson.

Edgar R Huff

Edgar R. Huff enlisted in the Marine Corps in June 1942 and underwent training at the new Montford Point Camp.  "I wanted to be a Marine," he said years later, "because I had always heard that the Marines Corps was the toughest outfit going, and I felt I was the toughest going, so I wanted to be a member of the best organization."  His toughness and physical strength had served him well while a crane rigger for the Republic Steel Company in Alabama City, near his home town of Gadsden, Alabama.

Huff reported for duty at a time when the Montford Point operation desperately needed forceful and intelligent African-Americans, with or without previous military experience, to take over from the white noncommissioned officers of the Special Enlisted Staff.  Since he possessed the very qualities that the Marine Corps was seeking, he attended a drill instructor's course, served briefly as an assistant to two white drill instructors, took over a platoon of his won, and soon assumed responsibility for all the DIs at Montford Point.  He made platoon sergeant in September 1943, gunnery sergeant in November of that year, and in June 1944 became first sergeant of a malaria control detachment at Montford Point.  He went overseas six months later as the first sergeant of the 5th Depot Company - the second wartime unit with that designation - served on Saipan, saw combat on Okinawa, and took part in the occupation of North China.

Discharged from the Marines Corps when the war ended, he spent a few months as a civilian and then reenlisted.  He saw service in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.  During his second tour of duty in Vietnam, he was sergeant Major, III Marine Amphibious Force, the principal Marine Corps command in Southeast Asia.  He retired in 1972 while Sergeant Major, Marine Corps Air Station , New River, North Carolina, and died in May 1994.