For those who have been here more than ten years, you remember the replacement of the 50 year old Mark Clark Bridge over West Pass to Camano Island.  In 1950 with WWII still on people’s mind the bridge was dedicated to  General Mark Clark and his wife who had a second home on Camano Island for a few years.  Today, in remembrance of the December 7th Pearl Harbor attack, his name was remembered in a recent story on National Public Radio about Mark Clark’s recognition of an all Black battalion :  [The following is a quote from the program that you can listen to here.

In the Army, Robert Madison faced segregation and marginalization. But Madison has a profound memory of a white general, Mark Clark, who acknowledged his all-Black battalion.

Robert MADISON: He (General Mark Clark) noticed that the commanders of these companies were just first lieutenants. And he said, why are these commanders not captains? And they sort of shrugged their shoulders. So he said to his aide-de-camp, give me the bars. And sure enough, right there on the parade ground, Mark Clark put the captain’s bars on these commanding officers. That was the first time anybody had recognized that we were there to fight and do battle like anybody else.
GREENE: His battalion was not the only one that had long been overlooked.
MADISON: On my left flank was the for 4-42nd. They were the Nisei, the Japanese troops. But these boys are out there doing what we were trying to do. They were trying to prove something like we were.