Marines

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The Montford Point Marine Association Quantico Chapter 32 hosts their 2014 Annual Gala at the Clubs at Quantico, Quantico, Va. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Diana Sims/Released)

Photo by Lance Cpl. Diana Sims

Montford Point Marine honored with nation’s highest civilian award

28 Aug 2014 | John Hollis Marine Corps Base Quantico

Retired staff sergeant and Montford Point Marine Johnny Cody received the Congressional Gold Medal to highlight Saturday night’s annual gala by the Quantico chapter of the National Montford Point Marine Association.

 

Lt. Gen. Kenneth J. Glueck Jr., commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command and deputy commandant, Combat Development and Integration, presented the nation’s highest civilian award to Cody before a packed house of friends, family and fellow Marines at The Clubs at Quantico.

 

Cody, who was one of the original Montford Point Marines, spent more than 20 years in the Marine Corps, serving in both Korea and Vietnam.

 

“I’m just speechless, really,” said Cody, who also received a framed proclamation from the White House as part of the tribute.

 

“I thought I had gone through hell,” he said. “I had never heard of Montford Point [before enlisting in the Marines]. I thought it was a mistake.”

 

Glueck lauded Cody and Eloise, his wife of nearly 65 years, as “true national heroes.”

 

Other original Montford Point Marines in attendance included retired gunnery sergeant Richard H. Walker and former private Stanley Tapscott. Eric Nelson, president of Quantico’s Montford Point Marine Association, Chapter 32, hailed the Montford Point Marines as “ordinary men who overcame extraordinary challenges.”

 

The Montford Point Marines became the first African-Americans to serve in the Marine Corps starting in 1942. Because the military was still segregated at the time, African-American Marines had their basic training at Camp Montford Point in Jacksonville, N.C., rather than join their white counterparts at Marine Corps Recruit Depots at Parris Island, S.C., or San Diego, Calif.

 

Roughly 20,000 Marines endured tough conditions while serving at Montford

 

Point between 1942 and the camp’s deactivation in 1949. In addition to having to constantly prove their own worth as Marines, they endured less-than-welcoming conditions in the Jim Crow South. President Harry S. Truman integrated the military in 1948. Many of the Montford Point Marines served with distinction in World War II in some of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific Theater.

 

In 2012, Congress awarded the Congressional Gold Medal as a unit to the original Montford Point Marines.

 


Marine Corps Base Quantico