Carbondale native to be in documentary on blacks in Marines in WWII

Carbondale, Ill. -- The Rev. Dr. Archibald Mosely, a native of Carbondale and a graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, will be featured in a documentary on national television Tuesday about the first blacks to serve in the U.S. Marines during World War II.

The film, "The Marines of Montford Point: Fighting for Freedom" highlights the experiences of the 20,000 black Marines who trained at segregated facilities in Montford Point in North Carolina from 1942 to 1949. The Montford Point facilities were next to Camp Lejeune, N.C., where white Marines trained. Marines who trained at Montford Point fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Until 1942, the Marines did not recruit minorities to fight. The formation of the Fair Employment Practices Commission under Franklin Roosevelt in 1941 obligated the U.S. Marines to recruit minorities.

The hourlong film is narrated by Louis Gossett Jr., who won an Academy Award in 1983 for best actor in a supporting role in "An Officer and a Gentleman"; Dr. Melton McLaurin, professor emeritus from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, wrote and directed the film. The film will air from 9 to 10 p.m. Tuesday on Channel 8, WSIU.

Mosley, who was one of 60 former Marines interviewed for the film, was born in 1925 in Carbondale and has since retired to Pontiac, Mich. His daughter, Dr. Elizabeth Lewin, is a retired superintendent for Carbondale Elementary Schools.

Mosley was contacted about three years ago to participate in the film.

"I was flabbergasted," he said. "I hadn't even thought about it, being a part of something that important."

He, like the other Marines involved with the film, paid out of his own pocket for his three trips to be interviewed.

"We didn't mind," he said about the cost. "We felt we had to leave the documentary as a memorial to our comrades who paid the price with their lives. If we don't do it, it won't happen."

Mosley "received a letter from Uncle Sam" in 1942. He was initially recruited to the Army, but he declined because his brother was already in the Army.

"I thought it was dangerous for two brothers," he said. "There was so much concern and interest in the other" that fighting ability would be hindered by that concern.

He asked to be assigned to the Marines instead.

"I'd seen those uniforms in the movies," Mosley said. "They had some red, some blue, some white; I think a black man looks good in a Marine Corps uniform."

Mosley trained six weeks at Montford Point, after which time he and 15 other black Marines were selected to be instructors. Mosley became a weapons instructor because he had enrolled at SIU, even though he had not yet finished one semester there. He remained an instructor at Montford Point for the next two years until he was assigned to combat in the Pacific Theater of the war.

Mosley fought on Iwo Jima and was shipped to Nagasaki, Japan, to clean up after the America dropped two atomic bombs on that country.

On ships in the Pacific Ocean, Mosley said white troops were housed on the top of the ship while blacks were stationed below; the segregation was also extended to landing barges used for island invasions. However, segregation did not extend to all aspects of the war.

"In the battle, we all got integrated," Mosley said. "When I was down there fighting at the bottom of Mount Suribachi, they didn't send segregated bullets that said 'these are for whites, these are for blacks.' Those bullets said 'To whomever it concerns.'"

Mosley was honorably discharged in 1946, but at the time he was not given any of the 12 awards for which he was eligible. It was not until a few years ago, after his daughter looked through his records, that a Marine came to deliver his awards over Thanksgiving with the whole family present.

"It was very emotional," said Lewin, Mosley's daughter.

Mosley, 82, has received five post-secondary degrees over the course of his life, all paid for by the GI Bill, for which he is thankful. For 60 years he was involved with the Methodist church. Much of his time there was spent as a pastor.

Mosley hoped the film would be warmly received, even though he felt there would be some resistance to it.

"I'm hoping this documentary alleviates what so many of us started in 1942," he said. "That's my dying hope."

tthomas@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 197

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