Montford Point ‘transitions’ to Marine Corps’ Camp Johnson

One of the most celebrated Montford Point Marines to undergo basic training at the segregated military camp in Onslow County was Gilbert Hubert Johnson of Mount Hebron, Ala., a small rural county in the northeast corner of the state.

 

His fellow African-American Marines nicknamed him “Hashmark” Johnson, because he was considerably older and had accumulated “hashmark” striping worn on his uniform sleeve, representing years of successful “prior military service.”

It’s an interesting story, and a tale told in 2006 by Adam Johnston, who was a corporal in the public information office aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune at the time.

Johnston wrote that “Hashmark” Johnson holds a rare distinction of having “sampled” duty in three branches of the armed services – the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.

After finishing high school, Johnson attended Stillman College, a private, historically black college in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He volunteered at age 18 in 1923 for an all-black Army Infantry Regiment based at Fort Huachuca, located near Sierra Vista, Ariz.

Hence, Johnson became one of the “Buffalo Soldiers,” African-American troops who were sent to the Western frontier following the Civil War. The nickname, given by Native Americans, is thought to come from the soldiers’ fierce fighting spirit, similar to a buffalo.

 

Johnson completed a six-year stint with the Army and found civilian work within the railroad industry in Texas. But, in 1933, during the depths of the Great Depression, he decided to give the Navy a try. He was serving aboard the Pacific Fleet when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

In his late 30s, Johnson volunteered for service with the Marine Corps and reported to Montford Point on Nov. 14, 1942. The downside was that Johnson had to forfeit his Navy rank and pay to enter the Marine Corps as a private.

He was quickly promoted four times and elevated to a platoon drill instructor. Reminiscing about those days, Johnson described himself as somewhat of an “ogre” on the field.

 

“I was a stern instructor,” he said, “but I was fair. Ultimately, my goal was to produce in a few weeks, and at most a few months, a type of Marine fully qualified in every aspect to wear that much cherished Globe and Anchor.”

 

“I had a job to do, and you measured up,” he once told fellow Marines.

Johnson was promoted to the rank of sergeant major at Montford Point in January 1945 and deployed to the Pacific theater in June 1945. While serving in Guam, Sgt. Maj. Johnson personally led 25 separate combat excursions into the jungle.

 

He later served in an advisory capacity during the Korean War (1950-53). After completing a tour of duty in Japan, Hashmark Johnson retired in 1959 with a total of 32 years of military service (17 of those years as a Marine).

One of Hashmark Johnson’s closest friends at Montford Point was Edgar R. Huff of Gadsden, Ala., a fellow drill instructor who was later assigned duty as field sergeant major, responsible for all recruit training at the Montford Point. (Johnson and Huff became brothers-in-law when they married twin sisters, Eulah and Beulah McCaskill, respectively, of Montgomery County, N.C.)

While speaking at a luncheon meeting of the National Montford Point Marine Association in Jacksonville, N.C., on Aug. 5, 1972, Sgt. Maj. Johnson suffered a heart attack and died. He was 66. His body rests in Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery.

In April 1974, the sacred ground that once was Montford Point was renamed Camp Gilbert H. Johnson, Montford Point, Camp Lejeune, in honor of Hashmark Johnson. It’s the only U.S. Marine installation named after an African-American.

Here's more about Edgar Huff:

Edgar R. Huff enlisted in the Marine Corps in June 1942 and underwent training at Montford Point. 

“I wanted to be a Marine,” he said years later, “because I had always heard that the Marine 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 hometown of Gadsden, Ala.)

Since Huff 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 own, 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, served on Saipan, saw combat on Okinawa and took part in the occupation of North China.

Discharged from the Marine 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 of a Marine amphibious force, the principal Marine Corps command in Southeast Asia.

He retired in 1972 while sergeant major at Marine Corps Air Station, New River, N.C., after 30 years of military service and died in May 1994, at age 74.