Blacks in World War II-- Part 2

On Saipan, desperate fighting cost 3,500 American lives which led commanders to throw the first black Marines into combat.  These men had trained at the segregated Montford Point facility outside Jacksonville, NC, now part of the USMC's Camp Lejeune.  They were only supposed to be stevedores, supply handlers and rear-echelon guards.  They performed admirably.

There was no longer the question of how well they could fight.

The military needed huge amounts of ordnance to fight the Pacific war.  Shipping it to the front was largely the part of black sailors who were ordered to become ammunition handlers at the Port Chicago, California, depot.  It was a huge accident waiting to happen.  In the rush to supply the front and to set records, white Navy officers ignored safety precautions.  Coast Guard inspectors complained of the conditions, they were ordered off the base.

Black sailors got the job because Navy brass wanted to avoid problems and pay with unionized civilian stevedores.  Morale among the sailors was low.  As late as 1944, the Navy would only allow blacks to serve as cooks, busboys and stevedores.  It was in that year, however, that the first black officers were commissioned.

The Accident.  --GreGen