Q&A: Robin Lake on her quest to uncover her late father’s military service records

In February 2021, when local resident Robin Lake decided to look into her late father James A. Edwards’ military service records, she had no way of knowing the length of time it would take to receive the information. Nor did she have any inclination that the journey would result in her accepting a Congressional Gold Medal in his name.

The story began amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as Lake and her sister, Wendy White, discussed their father’s military experience. “He told us stories all the time about what he did and where he went, but he never told us that he was a Monford Point Marine,” Lake says.

The Montford Point Marines were the first African Americans to enlist in the Marine Corps. They served in a segregated military force during World War II and trained at Camp Montford Point, a section of Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C. Most of these soldiers fought in the Pacific theater, with their largest involvement in combat recorded at Okinawa.

Days, weeks and months passed between requests for official information and answers, Lake remembers. “We weren’t getting anywhere for so long,” she says. “But I told my sister, ‘Daddy’s not going be forgotten. We’re just going to have to dig deeper and harder and find something to show that he served this country.’”

After almost 18 months, Lake and her sister received word from Johnny Young, Jr., the president of the Camp Lejeune chapter of the Montford Point Marine Association, confirming her father’s involvement with the MPM. An invitation to accept a Congressional Gold Medal in her father’s name soon followed. When Carlos Del Toro, the secretary of the Navy, handed her the medal on Aug. 25 tears streamed down her smiling face.

Xpress sat down with Lake to discuss her and her sister’s journey to uncover their father’s military records and the subsequent honor their late father received.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.

Would you mind sharing with us some of the stories your father told you about his service during World War II? 

He told us stories all the time about what he did when he was a Marine. He told us how when he joined it was really basic. He and fellow Montford Point Marines even had to make a couple of bunkers and help build Camp Lejeune. It wasn’t all prepared when they got there. He had a scrapbook he made himself. It was 3 or 4 inches thick. He had all these pictures of his buddies and mementos of places he traveled. He fought in Saipan, Okinawa and Iwo Jima.

One of the things I remember was this big picture. You could see it was almost a mile long with hills rolling up and down. The hills were lined with these little white crosses everywhere. It was a pretty picture because everything was all in a row — hill after hill after hill like that.

I asked him, “What was this about?” And he told me, “These are all the men who died that fought for this country.” I said, “That’s a lot.” He said, “There’s more. That hill went on. This was just only one place they had a cemetery. There were many more.”

I cried. I was so thankful that he wasn’t under one of those crosses.

Can you speak more about your journey to uncover your father’s military records? 

My sister said, “It’d be nice to find out where Daddy went and what he did. I’ve been reading about these Montford Point Marines. You think he was a part of that?”

So, I said I’d call to see if they’d send the official records to me. The first time I called Camp Lejeune, I left a message and waited a week or two. I never got a call back. I called again. The same thing happened. I was talking with a church member who used to work for the Pentagon. He said I probably needed some type of introduction. He had some Marine friends and offered to call one of them on my behalf.

About four or five days later, I got a phone call from a Marine. I don’t know where he was from, but he was very old. At this point, living members of the Montford Point Marines are in their 90s, and some even trying to hit 100.

Through three of these Marine contacts, I finally got in touch with Johnny B. Young, [Jr.] at Camp Lejeune. He asked for information, told me he’d contact me in a couple of weeks. Three weeks later, he called me back and said, “We can’t find anything about your father.” A fire had previously destroyed his files.

Well, my Daddy was not going to be forgotten. I was going to find those records. I called my sister, and we were both crying on the phone. He was a Marine. He fought in Saipan, Okinawa, Iwo Jima. Somebody has to have something!

It took us eight months looking for records, and we were about to give up. There had to be an easier way to do this. Eventually, I came in touch with someone unassociated with the military who had information, but they said they could get in a lot of trouble for sharing the documents.

“Listen,” I said, “We’ve been searching for eight months trying to find my father’s military records. Send me anything, please. Even just one paper. I don’t want him to be a forgotten soldier. No one has any records on him. He fought for you, for me — for everybody. He just can’t go down like this and not be honored.”

I guess I touched a nerve. First thing I got was his honorable discharge and then a paper that confirmed he was in the military, stated how long he was there, where he fought, what his job was in the military and all of that. Then I received this picture of him in his uniform. Oh, I was bawling!

I sent those papers down to Johnny Young at Camp Lejeune, along with his birth certificate. In about a month, he called me back to tell me my dad was a Montford Point Marine.

What does his Congressional Gold Medal mean to you?

This is a story my father told me when we got older. He was in the field in Saipan. His friend was next to him. They had been friends for maybe a couple of months. They were hiding in these hills, and a bomb went off. It hit his friend. All he could remember was wiping his face. And when he got his eyes cleared there was the blood and guts from his friend. My father fought for the United States. He kept this country safe and kept the war from coming over here. I’m proud of him. He sacrificed a lot. He’s deserving of this medal.

More broadly, what has the award meant to the community, in particular the Black community?

The Black military experience was hard for all Black people. They had to fight for equal rights before they were in the U.S. armed forces, while they were in it and afterward.

For the Black community, it showed that these men considered themselves just as good or better in some circumstances because they were called upon to get the other Marines out of trouble. They were that good. The Montford Point Marines made a breakthrough for Blacks to fight just like the Red Tails, the Tuskegee Airmen [both African American fighter pilot squadrons during World War II], and the Buffalo Soldiers [African American cavalry soldiers serving after the Civil War].

In the end, they made a way for others to come in behind them and do good things. It’s a history that shouldn’t be forgotten. All these men took that step. And it’s not just Black history, it’s everybody’s history.