[Posted Jan. 30, 2008]

Black History Feature-black bordered/centered

The Golden 13: The Navy’s First Black Officers

    The United States military is one of the most culturally diverse organizations in the world. Black men, women and other ethnic groups are in positions of great power and leadership, commanding vessels at sea, huge combat units in the Middle East and administrative operations at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the American military industrial complex.

    But despite being a fine example of multi-cultural advancement and diversity, military diversity is a reality which is due to a hard fought battles decades ago.
        Before and continuing through most of World War II, Blacks were inducted into the military but most were placed in menial service jobs, such as cooking driving trucks or cleaning.  There were few, if any, commissioned officers in the military ranks, especially in the U.S. Navy. This all began to change in  early 1944.
      Great Lakes, Illinois was the site selected by the Navy for training the first African-American naval officers of modern times. In January, 1944, 12 ensigns and one warrant officer were appointed and sent to Camp Smalls for indoctrination and training. Their officers and instructors (sad to say) were not all on their side, but the young men were bright and determined. They stuck it out through every difficulty.
      Finally, the day came for the final comprehensive test of Officer Candidate School. When their test results went to the Pentagon, there was consternation and disbelief. The Golden 13 had scored the highest grades that had ever been recorded in Navy history (the record still stands).
      However, many officials at the time refused to believe the results. How could it be possible, they wondered. How could it be possible that these 13 young black men had achieved scores far beyond those of young white men taking the same test to become naval officers?
      The officials who did the wondering might not even have been bigoted. The poisonous legacy of generations of Jim Crow had seeped into the American mindset.
     These men, who became known as the Golden 13, were challenging that mindset, and in the process, challenging segregation, Jim Crow, and the entire status of African Americans in the United States.

      No, said the officials, the Golden 13 test scores could not be correct. The order came from Washington: give the test again, another test, just as tough, or tougher. The 13 young African Americans at Great Lakes were stunned and insulted—but they had experienced such things before. They took the new test. They aced it again. Again, their scores were the highest ever recorded, and so they remain.
      This time, resistance in the Pentagon collapsed. Not completely, of course. There would be other challenges for African Americans in the U.S. military. But the Golden 13 had crashed through one of them, and other young men and women of color were following fast behind.
      At that time, there were some 100,000 African American men serving in the United States Navy. However, none of those men were naval officers. All of the naval officers were Caucasian.
      There were a total of thirteen men that were commissioned. The group known as "Golden Thirteen" consisted of John Walter Reagan, Jesse Walter Arbor, Dalton Louis Baugh, Frank Ellis Sublett, Graham Edward Martin, Charles Byrd Lear, Phillip George Barnes, Reginald E. Goodwin, James Edward Hair, Samuel Edward Barnes, George Clinton Cooper, William Sylvester White, and Dennis Denmark Nelson.
      But despite their academic achievement and hard work,  these black officers did not receive the respect they deserved. They were assigned lackey jobs. They didn't get perks like the other officers did. And, worst of all, when each man was discharged from the Navy, none of them were shown formal appreciation for their esteemed service.
      However, that has changed. Since 2006, a special memorial dedicated to the black men who were trained at the Great  Lakes Training facility has been designated. It will be  built in North Chicago’s Veterans Memorial Park. And a federal grant is the source of funding for the memorial.
      The memorial will honor all of the veterans who served in the second World War. But, it will contain special plaques that will commemorate the service of the "Golden 13", as well as other African-American military legends.
      Family and friends bade farewell to Frank Ellis Sublett on November 12 at a memorial service in Chicago, honoring the last member of the first group of African-American men to receive commissions as officers in the U.S. Navy.
Nearly 100 visitors heard family members and friends gave their recollections of Sublett.
     “Grandpa Frank knew his attributes and his strengths and he took them out to the limit,” said grandson Anthony Sublett . “He urged me to do that, but I didn’t at the time, when I was in college. I realize now how important that is and I try to do it.”
      The man who wrote the 1993 book of recollections of the Navy’s Golden 13 gave Sublett’s eulogy. Author Paul Stillwell said that during the writing of the book, “I came to know what real heroes and pioneers these men were.”
      Sublett was born in Murfreesboro, Tenn., March 5, 1920. He attended school in Glencoe and Winnetka, Ill., and spent one year at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He also attended George Williams College in Chicago and Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
      Sublett entered the Naval Reserve July 7, 1942, and attained the enlisted rate of Machinist’s Mate 1st Class prior to receiving his commission.  Following commissioning, he was assigned to the Naval Training Station, Hampton Institute, Va., and then to the Naval Local Defense Forces in the 12th Naval District, San Francisco. He served with the Service Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet and the Naval Operating Force, Eniwetok Island, Marshall Islands. He was released from active duty in 1946.

Final Note: President Truman finally desegregated the military in 1948.

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