Photo By Laurie Pearson | Retired Gunnery Sgt. LaSalle R. Vaughn in his U.S. Marine Corps uniform at the funeral...... read more read more
LaSalle R. Vaughn, Sr. of Port Royal, Louisiana, was a retired gunnery sergeant who served in the United States Marine Corps, along with more than 20,000 other black men in the Montford Point Marines.
“(His) eyes could bore into you like a nail, and (his) body was still taut as new rope when he died last Sunday at 88,” wrote David Lauderdale in a 2012 article about the man.
Though he died in 2012 at the age of 88, “Sarge” as he was nicknamed, left behind a legacy carried on today by writing the lyrics to “I’ll Take The Marines.”
The song was later put to music and dubbed the Montford Point Marines Hymn and is still played at special events where Montford Point Marines are honored and remembered for their sacrifices and honorable service to the United States.
Vaughn was one of thousands of black Marines who underwent basic training in the swampy, segregated Montford Point site outside Camp Lejeune, N.C., between 1942 and 1949.
Today’s Marine Corps, like its sister services, is fully integrated, but for decades, the Marines did not admit African Americans. It was in 1941 when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 to establish the Fair Employment Practice Commission, banning discrimination “because of race, creed, color, or national origin” in all government agencies.
He enlisted after he received a draft card for World War II, signing up at a recruiting station in Chicago soon after President Roosevelt signed the order. He wanted to be in the smallest and most elite branch of the military.
“We were not wanted in the Marine Corps,” Vaughn said in a 2007 interview with The Beaufort Gazette. “But I refused to go in the Army and Navy.”
He and others enlisted during a time when and a place where racism and segregation were a part of everyday life. For instance, the quota of 1,200 men were housed in prefabricated huts near segregated Jacksonville, North Carolina, where railroad tracks divided white residents from black.
Despite the challenges presented to those Montford Point Marines, their valor and performance at Peleliu, Iwo Jima, the Chosen Reservoir, Vietnam, and more, paved the way for our present day, integrated armed forces.
Vaughn set off in 1942 to the newly opened, all-black training base where the drill instructors were white because no black men had been Marines prior. The recruits lacked many of the basic-training facilities that the Corps’ bases for white men had, such as a pool and rifle range. By 1945, all drill instructors and many noncommissioned officers at Montford Point were black.
After training, Vaughn stayed on the base as a cook until black Marines began to be stationed at other bases, as the Corps grew more integrated.
In January 1944, he arrived on Parris Island to work at the Officers Club and became one of the first black Marines on base. He said they weren’t allowed to live in the barracks, but instead slept in tents outside and could travel only to certain parts of the base.
Vaughn was one of 420 surviving Montford Point Marines who attended a ceremony at Marine barracks near the Capitol Building in the District of Columbia and were honored with a Congressional Gold Medal. The medal, presented to the group collectively, is the nation’s highest civilian honor and dates to 1776, when George Washington received the first one from the Continental Congress. It reads:
"For outstanding perseverance and courage that inspired social change in the Marine Corps"
Vaughn lived on Sergeants Drive in Port Royal, where he was one of three black Marine sergeants, each with seven children, who retired there. He is also enshrined in the Montford Point Marine Association Hall of Fame.
In one story he told to reporter, he said that his wife, Catherine, told him he needed to forgive others for the discrimination that black people and others endured. He said, with blatant honesty, that he can forgive, but cannot forget.
The Montford Point Marines performed well in their duties at home and abroad, despite the strictures placed on them by society in their era. The men of Montford Point also made it impossible for the Marine Corps to return to its pre-war policy.
President Harry S. Truman eliminated segregated units in 1949. However, the Montford Point Marines have not been forgotten. In 1998, Parris Island drum major and then Staff Sgt. Vernon Harris composed the music to the song called “I’ll Take the Marines,” commemorating the group. The words had been written by a Montford Point Marine, Gunnery Sgt. LaSalle R. Vaughn, Sr.
“If African Americans at that time could go through the rigorous training of Marines when it was segregated and they were looked down on and still be proud Marines it encourages all Marines to look forward and recognize our progress,” Harris said.
Montford Point Marine Hymn
“I’ll Take The Marines”
Lyrics by: USMC Ret. Gunnery
Sergeant LaSalle R. Vaughn, Sr.
"I’ll take the Marines
And make it my home
Forever I roam
We fought by day
We fought through the night
to gain our right...
So proudly we stand
Our rifle in hand
Committed to the Corps
There are thousands or more
And there will be more
Who make the Marines
When my time is over
I’ll go home for glory
I’ll take the Marines
I’ll sing my song
Along and along
Forever I roam"
“But everyone talks about his cinnamon rolls. Their sweet aroma would pull children into his kitchen from all over Sergeants Drive in Port Royal.” -David Lauderdale
“I had a guy ask me one day, say, ‘Vaughn, do you know about heaven and hell?’ I said, ‘Let me tell you one thing. The thing about it, I’ve been to hell already, so I must be going to heaven.’” GySgt Vaughn
| Date Taken: | 02.13.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.23.2020 17:03 |
| Story ID: | 368334 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,456 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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