Montford Point Marines Louis Massengale and Jimmy Hargrove Audio Interview Pt1

Montford Point Marines Louis Massengale and Jimmy Hargrove sit down with host Patricia Williams and explain how they originally met and when and how they joined the Marine Corp.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

LV55 Media LLC presents the Heroes of Montrech Point interview series featuring Montreck Point Marines, Lewis Massingale and Jimmy Hargrove. Part one, hosted by Patricia Williams.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hello, gentlemen. Thank you so very much. First, I want to say thank you so much for serving our country. And Mr. Hargrove and Mr. Mr. Massingale, Mr. Hargrove. Yes. I'd like to start with how do you two gentlemen know each other? Why don't you answer first, Mr. Massingel?

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Well, it goes back to uh really uh mouthful point, uh not my mouthful point, but Quantico. Uh he was the one in boot camp before I and then I was transferred to Quantico later, and we was into the same organization. I think we was about a month apart.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Apart, yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Yeah, in training. And they're um there we end up working in the same area area.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Wow. Well, so you all just just became friends then and just remained friends and lost touch over time or yeah, well after you after you know you amongst one another for some time, then you get to know more about the other one.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

And so happened we found out that we both were from the same area, Alabama.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

Birmingham.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Birmingham. Uh I lived uh about six, eight miles from where you he did. And but so happened his aunt was a pastor of a church two blocks from where I live. And she used to bring him out to the church. Now, not knowing that later on in years that we're gonna meet and be big buddies.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Wow, wow. So you met long before you were in in the service. Right. Wow, wow, amazing. Wow. So what what else can you add to that?

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Uh well um during that time um going to the church, uh, I had to sit on the front row, and I better not go to sleep. She was very strict, and and uh it was her way of breaking into the ministry was not actually not heard of for women in that day and time. There's a lot of women, pastors and bishops today. But during the 40s, that was a no-no. And uh husbands just didn't allow that. So it came a it uh became a separation family-wise. So what would happen, the husband wouldn't go to the church. She could go, but he wasn't about to go. But this is how we really uh linked up, and then later when we were at Quantico together, and it was possible it was approximately 25 African-American Marines on that base. Uh, and we had to stay together. We became brothers because during that time a lot of people didn't want to send the Marine Corps. And when you go out on liberty, it had to be at least three of us together at one time to avoid being jumped or uh assaulted by other Marines. But we survived and uh we had a few fights. We were never lost any though.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

It's true. Wow, wow. Wow, that's good. So what approximately what what year was that in in Quantico?

SPEAKER_03 3:54

Well, 19, uh I went there in 1949. Okay. And so hit Lewis, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

So you you pretty much went in at different times and just slightly. Yeah, yeah. What were some of the um, what can you say was the biggest challenge in um serving during that time?

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Um, well, first of all, I did not know that the Marine Corps was segregated. The recruiters that had you to sign up for the branch of service didn't tell you that. And you didn't find it out until you got to Mount Point. Uh and you look around and say, What have I gotten myself into? But you're so pressed into training, that doesn't cross your mind. The thing you want to do is get out of there alive. Because our training was much gruesome and probably went a little further than the book called for. Because I think the drill instructors want to prove a point that we can take these colored boys and make Marines out of them. And I'll tell you, they did. They carried us to the point as far as they could without losing you. And several times at Mount Point, they marched us in the bay at night, as a bay on the waters. And the drill instructor was coming in off of Liberty or somewhere and march us in that bay with our rifles over our head. And you better not get wet. And surprisingly, we never lost anyone in the opportunity. I don't know about it, earlier later, because they don't talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

So, what was one of your big we had more of a challenge, uh uh the D.I. that we had, and uh his name was Charlie Shaw. Big, tall dude, you know, and uh he just put the fear into you the way you approach you. And like he said at night, uh, even during the day, they have different tactics that they'll do to to get your attention, discipline. And one of the things that he used an awful lot is, oh, I'm gonna give you guys a break today. Go put your rifles away. Oh boy, this is great. And come back out, he drills us over to a pile of logs about yabig, and the same like a rifle, but all the bark is taken off. So it's slick. And then he drills us into this same bay that they was in. Yeah, but we had to maintain this log in the port arm position. You ever try to take a piece of wood and hold it underwater? You don't. No, the lower you hold it, the more buoyancy you get. Yes, and it'll flip you in the water. But you will stand at attention in this water. And some of us accomplish it and sometimes we get a chance to try it a few more times. Not at our choice. But uh that was uh doing the DI, the black DIs. Now I can imagine what the Marines went through, the recruits went through before we did back in 42 and 43. What they in 44, those and because they had uh white DIs. And uh the white DIs didn't take it very light. They was really hard on them.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Special thanks to Jimmy Michael Truett and the National Montford Point Marine Association. This episode was recorded on location at the Four Points by Sheridan, San Diego, California, on February 28, 2013.