For Memorial Day let me introduce you to Thompkins Hallman who served in the South Pacific during WWII. Now in his mid-90s, Thompkins has helped Earth Stewardship East at multiple Pleasant View events. (Photo shows Thompkins talking about the segregated school at Pleasant View. Besides sharing first-hand history but Thompkins brings a shovel and helps in our native garden too.)
Thompkins went to Papua New Guinea on the Monticello, a troop transport ship after training in Ft. Lee, VA. He was originally with a company called the Railroad Company assigned to unload ships of supplies. They were an all black unit with a white officer (though by the end of the war there were black officers leading black units). Thompkins also served in the Philippines, Tokyo and Yokohama. Thompkins says he was fortunate that when they learned he was a good typist and had worked for the Quartermaster General in DC at Buzzard's Point, he was transferred to work at the headquarters in Papua New Guinea. Though safer, it also meant he was separated from his unit and the men he knew.
Thompkins had orders to be with the invading forces entering Japan but because of the atomic bomb was able to enter a bit later with occupying forces.
I asked Thompkins if there were problems having white officers for an all-black unit. He said there was one incident he remembers. The men were supposed to have a sunrise service and the all-black units gathered with their black chaplain and waited and waited for the white officers so they could start. But the officers never came. They had held a separate service earlier and purposely did not include the black servicemen or their chaplain. Thompkins said their chaplain was very disappointed and distressed. "A horrible thing to do, really."
Thompkins returned to the US through San Francisco and Camp Pendleton. There were so many troops in the West they decided to fly some back East, including Thompkins. He got to stop in Salt Lake City and also Chicago where he remembers a white sailor treating him to a banana split, a simple act of kindness remembered 75+ years.