Black military leaders express pride, not surprise, at progress

[unhappycamper]

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60087

Maj. Gen. Anthony Jackson, U.S. Africa Command's director of operations and logistics, salutes while telling a story of junior black soldiers: "They hadn't seen a black officer. They were stunned. And then there was the realization that I was an officer and they better whip out a salute," he said. "You could tell by that look in their eyes that it was a special thing."


Black military leaders express pride, not surprise, at progress
By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, January 18, 2009

STUTTGART, Germany — Anthony Jackson recalls the encounter like it was yesterday.

It was the mid-1970s, and the Marine second lieutenant was on his first assignment, reporting for duty to a no-nonsense lieutenant colonel at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

“It was like reporting to God, if not Jesus,” said Jackson, who as a boy watched his older sister defy a bus driver’s orders to sit in the back of a bus in southern Texas.

But then, a few years out of college with a master’s degree in history, Jackson was standing at attention before a grizzly Marine lieutenant colonel.

“He leaves me there for it seemed like a very long time. Then he looks up at me and goes: ‘Lieutenant, if the white guys don’t get you for being black, then the black guys are gonna get you for being an Uncle Tom. You understand?’ ”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60087