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llae Augusta News-Review, January 4, 1973 First Black Marine Sergeant Major Retires 4* JrJ ' ’ ®l Sgt. Maj. Edgar R. Huff The first black sergeant major in the Marine Corps retired this Fall, bringing to a close one of the most distinguished and unique careers any black has served in the American military. He is Edgar R. Huff who led the first black Marines into China at the close of World War 11. Nearly 25 years later, he was decorated for saving a white Marine half his age during the Tet Offensive in South Vietnam. At retirement, he was the first black to serve 30 years in the Corps and had been sergeant major longer than any other of his rank in the U.S. Armed Forces. Sgt. Maj. Huff came from modest circumstances to achieve high military distinction and accomplish ments in three wars. He was working the night shift in a steel plant in his native Gadsden, Alabama, when America entered World War 11. His father, now deceased, was a veteran of World War I and hoped his son would enter the Marines. Young Huff agreed. “I read one day in the paper that if a Negro was qualified he could be accepted,” Huff recalls. “I always heard the Marine Corps was the best and toughest. I wanted to be a part of it. I still feel that it’s the best Armed Force.” So on June 26, 1942, he began his remarkable career as one of the first 50 blacks ever chosen for the Marines. The Corps, now fully integrated, had changed markedly from those segregated days. But despite the limitations of segregated status, Huff went from private to first sergeant in just 23 months while serving entirely within the U.S. Then he was made the sergeant-in-charge of all training of black recruits at Montford Point, North Carolina, near his present home. In the Pacific, Huff and other blacks of the sth Marine Depot Company moved supplies to fighting units that were all-white. In 1946, he led a black unit into Tsien Tsin, the first ever on Chinese soil. Hardly any black has passed through the Corps since then who has not heard of Sgt. Maj. Huff or been impressed by his massive six-foot-six-inch frame, squared away manner, and sense of good humor and fair play. In Korea he got his chance to fight, serving as a weapons company “gunny” sergeant with the Ist Marine Division. He made sergeant major - his present rank - on December Page 4 31, 1955. He had gone as far an an enlisted man could, and many were recommending that he become a commissioned officer. “I declined it because the pay for sergeant majors was higher than what I could have received as a newly commissioned second lieutenant,” he says. “But, 1 feel that had I accepted the appointment that by this time I would be a field grade officer.” Huff returned to combat as "Boy Os The Year” Competition Opens NEW YORK, “It’s time we give recognition to millions of boys who don’t make the bad headlines, boys who don’t shoot dope, rob or steal,” John L. Burns, president of Boys’ Clubs of America, said today as the Boys’ Clubs launched the 27th annual “Boy of the Year” competition. “The ‘Boy of the Year’ program is one of our organization’s best means to encourage good boys to remain that way and not to travel the road of crime or violence,” Burns said. He pointed out that scholarships totaling $8,500 are annually awarded to “Boy of the Year” winners through a Reader’s Digest Foundation grant designed to further Juvenile Decency by stimulating interest in higher education. The national winner receives a $4,000 cash scholarship, while nine regional winners receive SSOO awards. More than 1,000 Boys’ Clubs throughout the country will be eligible to compete in the project, open to all Club members between the ages of 12 and 18. Contestants are judged on the quantity and quality of service to their home, school, church, community and Boys’ Club. By tradition, the national “Boy of the Year” is “installed” by the President in a White House ceremony during the National Boys’ Club Week. He also meets other government officials, visits New York for press, radio and television interviews and is an honored guest at the annual Boys’ Clubs convention. He will also be an honored guest in August at the American Legion convention in Honolulu All winners wdl be announced during National Boys’ Club Week, April 8-14. the sergeant major of the Ist Military Police Battalion in Vietnam. When the enemy attacked Danang in the early morning hours of January 30, 1968, Huff ran through an open field of withering enemy fire to reach a young wounded white Marine. Round after round kicked up dirt around the Marine. So Huff threw himself over the man and took rounds in his elbow and shoulder, but saving the Marine’s life. Though wounded, Huff pulled the man onto a stretcher and dragged him to safety. Later the Marine wrote: “Sergeant Major, I thank you for my life.” Says Huff, “He was one of my men, black or white. I would have done the same even if I got shot to hell in the process.” For that action, Huff was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with “V” for valor. When his wounds healed he became the Sergeant Major of the 3rd Marine Amphibious Force; the largest combat force ever under Marine command. It also was Georgia Infant Mortality Rate Exceeds Nation By 47% For Georgia the grim statistics on infant mortality have spurred her into being a national leader in efforts to produce a better quality of life for her citizens. A state conference-workshop planned for February 16-18 in Atlanta, to discuss prevention of physical and emotional impairment of children, is the first state-wide meeting ever to to held. Inquiries have already been received from other states seeking information on the Georgia model. The Conference, entitled “Continuum,” is an outgrowth of the American Medical Association Congress in Chicago last May focusing on the beginning of life and what could be done to improve the birthright of all children ... the right to be born healthy. That meeting concentrated on maternal and child health from conception through adolescence within a social, environmental and educational frame of reference. Georgians attending the congress returned home to initiate plans for a meeting along the same lines bringing together professionals, government leaders and lay people on a state level. It is being sponsored by The National Foundation-March of one of three times in his career that Huff had served as sergeant major to General Robert E. Cushman, now commandant of the Corps. Sgt. Maj. Huff now confines his exercise to fishing and small game hunting or barbecuing at his home in Hubert, North Carolina. He is married to the former Beaulah May McCaskill, and they have one son, Edgar Jr., now 14. Sgt. Maj. Huff recommends officer training to young blacks today. “There is no belter way to become the best, well-disciplined, mean-and-lean men,” he says. “Or to see the world. For the past 30 years I have seen more of the world than most men dream about.” To learn more about becoming an officer, he advises young men to call or write their local Marine recruiter. Now Sgt. Maj. Huff plans to see America. “1 plan to visit every state in the Union with plenty of hunting, fishing and relaxing,” he says. “And I look forward to watching the new breed we have progressing in tire Marine Corps.” Dimes and the Council on Maternal Health of the State of Georgia and co-sponsored by 11 other state health groups. With a rate 47% higher than the national rate on infant mortality, Georgia’s maternal and infant health care services, nutrition and family life health education will receive close attention at the conference. By raising the level of awareness of the problems of prenatal, natal and post natal care in both professional and lay areas, the conference hopes to improve existing conditions and provide a stimulus to initiate services where lacking. Specific recommendations to the Governor and the legislature will be followed by statewide support of participating groups and citizens. The slogan is “by 1976 every child will have the opportunity to be born healthy”. Co-sponsors of the conference are the following: Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics; Ga. Council Social Workers; Ga. Committee on Children and Youth; Ga. Dept, of Human Resources; Ga. Dietetic Assn.; Ga. Hospital Assn.; Ga. Medical Assn.; Ga. State Nurses Assn.; Ga. State Obstetrical and • j | '■'l Br \leed Something 9 Use fr Easy '<-' Read L n 9 I USINESS - SERVICE GUIDE tfiBSS H>lp N.A. >..(>, ■ J —l— —m—*■——* - - —— B We carry Duplicating machines & Supplies, Mimeograph Stencils, Inks, Paper for all type machines. We also carry Spirit Duplicating, Master Paper Fluid for all type Spirit Duplicator. Pinckney's Sales & Service CHURCH - - SCHOOL - - & OFFICE SUPPLIES TYPEWRITERS & MIMEOGRAPH MACHINES WE ALSO PRINT CHURCH PROGRAMS 1257 12th STREET - Phons 722-1159 ASHLEY’S CHURCH SUPPLIES “WEDDING INVITATIONS” Minister & Choir Robes Available All Kinds of Religious Books & Bibles Usher Badges - Communion Equipment Jffering Trays & Other Church Supplie 1301 llthSt 722-2501 You Need .—j The NAACP The NAACP Need You Join Today AUGUSTA BRANCH NAACP 1223 Gwinnett Street Augusta, Georgia 30901 I wish to become a member and-enclose $ I enclose $ as a contribution. NAME ADDRESS CITY, STATE, ZIP Annual Membership $4.00, $6.00, SIO.OO, $25.00 and up. Youth Membership (under 17) $1.00; (17 to 21) $2.00. Life Membership $5.00. Memberships of $6.00 and up include a year.‘s subscription to The Crisis Magazine at $2.00 Are You In The Air About A LEASE Call Us At PARK EAST Phone 724-1616 or 733-2201 No Lease REQUIRED Reasonable Rates Accommodations: including Living Room, Dining Room l‘/t bath, Kitchen, Patio, and Playground Additional Features: Security Guard, Wall-to-wall carpeting, Nursery (Jan. 73) CONVENIENT TO PAINE COLLEGE & GORDON HWY. AREA BBonununnKMKßnnununtiMnß B AUCUSTA S FINEST THEATRES • THERE IS ONE NEAR YOU g B "THE GETAWAY" "THE MECHANIC" fl & HELD OVER 3RD WEEK CHARLES BRONSON fl fl The Excitement Starts At roo s tvvvvn 3:00 ESPTffififlfl S fl lullrCriß 12:30 2:35 5:00 fl ■ [JwxwSl'l 4:40 6:45 7:00 flfl|AU£DT3flS 9:00 9:00 fl fl pg pg ■MflMgfcaflfll S 1:00 DOUBLE FEATURE fl 6:50 "WIT'S-END" fl 9:40 H PLUS SECOND FEATURE "WEI RD. fl WICKED * IUSIiCJS world" I LLCvfIMM 5 ■ fl "STEWARDESSES" fl 7:00 S 10:45 fl "WEEKEND WIVES" H 2nd Hit fl Atß:4s fljflOgflflH fl atflnßß(flnffi3nnfl Gynecological Society; Medical Assn, of Ga.; and 818, Better Infant Births, an alliance of 14 volunteer women’s community groups and March of Dimes, Fulton-DeKalb-Clayton Chapter and Whitfield Co. Chapter. Although service organizations throughout the state will be sending representatives, the conference is open to the general public. Reservations may be made by writing the Regional National CHURCH SUPPLIES Green’s Florist Do Unto Other As You Would Have Them Do Un fii < S il i s..~< Phone 722-9987 Foundation-March of Dimes Headquarters, 443 E. Paces Ferry Rd., N.E., Atlanta, Ga. 30305. Conference co-chairmen are Ruth Kent, well-known Atlanta television hostess and vice-president of 818, and W. Newton Long, M.D., professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Emory University. Conference coordinator is Mrs. Israel Wilen, chairman of the Council on Maternal Health for the State of Georgia. TYPESETTING Our Specialty Newspapers & Tabs. Make Up and Printing 1006 Ellis Street. Augusta. Ga 30902 -For Complete Cold Type Service K EAL ESTATE j HOUSE HUNTING ? ? NEW AND USED HOMES BARGAIN EQUITIES NO RED TAPE RENTALS FURNISHED OR UNFURNISHED JACK BOWLES REALTY CO. "22 Yrs. 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