Cosmas Eaglin, 108-year-old Black vet, helped break Marines’ color barrier
Eaglin enlisted in the military at 27 and served throughout World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Black war veteran Cosmas Eaglin turned 108 in January, a significant age for a man who has made important contributions and seen great change throughout his long life.
NBC News reported that Eaglin attended segregated schools and traveled in segregated trains while growing up in the “country town” of Opelousas, Louisiana, during the Jim Crow era.
“Wait and see what tomorrow is going to bring,” advised Eaglin in response to living a long life, “there’s no use in wasting time.”
The veteran enlisted at 27 and served throughout World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
During World War II, “I stayed in one place all the time,” he told NBC, “Solomon Islands.”
Following the issuance of an executive order by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 requiring all branches of the military to admit people of color officially, Eaglin was one of the first 300 Black recruits to shatter the Marine Corps’ color barrier.
Black Americans were already serving in every other department of the military, but the Marines were the last to formally admit African Americans to their ranks.
Shortly after Roosevelt signed the directive, Eaglin left for Montford Point, a North Carolina segregated base, to finish training.
Despite the advancement in the armed services, Black Marines were still not trusted to be on the front lines or in actual combat. Instead, many assisted with logistics, cooking and material transportation. But obedience was key, Eaglin said.
“Whatever they told you to do,” he recalled, according to NBC, “that’s what we did.”
Eaglin completed two deployments in Vietnam during the 1960s, noting how they were always concerned about what would come next.
He said that the Black community had made varying degrees of progress throughout his existence, noting that it was “up and down” but was beneficial if you did well for yourself.
“We got a lady that’s vice president of the United States, that’s a lady — one of our ladies,” Eaglin noted, according to NBC. “That’s a big deal.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that only 167,000 of the 16 million Americans who participated in WWII were still alive in 2022.
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