Once-segregated Marines review new recruits

Young and old came together to share a common tradition Thursday at Camp Pendleton.

Several hundred recruits, having just finished the grueling 54-hour test of endurance called the Crucible, marched smartly onto a parade deck. Most were dirty and many had tears of exhaustion and joy streaking down their faces.

"You have accomplished what few have dared to try," a first-sergeant barked at them as drill instructors prepared to bestow the Eagle, Globe and Anchor on each recruit and, for the first time, refer to him as a Marine.

And in the audience was a group of Marines from decades ago who once faced their own challenges in a desire to become Marines: African Americans who enlisted in the 1940s when the Marine Corps, indeed all of the U.S. military, was segregated.