A platoon of black "boot recruits" listen to their drill instructor, Sgt. Gilbert Hubert Johnson, whose job is to turn them into finished Marines at Montford Point, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., April 1943. After breaking through the race barrier that defined many of the nation’s military institutions, black Marines not only earned the right to bear the title Marine, but to also hold the time-honored position of Marine drill instructor.