Sergeant Major Gilbert H. "Hashmark" Johnson

[USMCRET6391]

The grand old man in the history of black Marines would have to be Sergeant Major Gilbert H. "Hashmark" Johnson. He earned the nickname "Hashmark" because he wore on the sleeve of his Marine Corps uniform three of the diagonal stripes, called hashmarks, indicating successful previous enlistments. 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 officer's messes at various installations 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 leader, he 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 Marine Corps, for a discharge from the Navy in order to join the Marines. He reported to Montford Point on November 14, 1942. He was chosen as an assistant drill instructor and later a drill instructor. In January 1945, he became Sergeant Major of the Montford Point Camp and in June of that year joined the 52nd Defense Battalion on 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. Retired MSgt. Bob Reid is quoted as saying, "He was a grumpy old man. He was very stern, but knowledgeable. He had these penetrating eyes and looked at you like a cobra looking out of his hole." Tough as nails when he presided over the recruit drill field at Montford Point and imbued throughout his career with a driving ambition for black Marines to succeed, to be somebody, he mellowed somewhat in later life to the status of elder statesman and spokesman for a generation of men who led the way toward desegregation and the end of discrimination in the Marine Corps.

He died stricken by a heart attack, while addressing a testimonial dinner of the Camp Lejeune Chapter of the Montford Point Marine Association on August 5, 1972. There could have been no man prouder - except perhaps my own father - of the accomplishments of black Marines, and perhaps no man who left such a personal mark on others through his insistence that the first of his race in the Corps would "measure up."

It was altogether fitting, therefore, that his name was commemorated in the Marine Corps where it first began to be known. On the recommendation of the Executive Board of the Montford Point Marine Association, the Commandant, General Cushman, approved the renaming of Montford Point Camp. On April 19, 1974, in ceremonies held at Camp Lejeune, CAMP GILBERT H. JOHNSON was activated at Montford Point. This well deserved tribute to a distinguished human being honors EVERY African-American man and woman who has worn the Marine uniform, as he did, with pride of self and Corps.

[Vulture6]

For more on Sgt.Maj. Johnson, be sure to visit this thread: Hashmark Johnson