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Just saw the movie, and it showed only one scene with Black Americans.

Watched with my former WWII Marine Dad. He explained that Marines were late to integrate, and that the Army had a lot of blacks. As he recalled, many blacks were cooks, and not in combat role at time of Iwo.

I am also a former Marine, and just came back from my son's graduation from boot camp at MCRD San Diego.

One thing struck me as I watched over 500 new Marines last Friday was the clear absence of Black Americans in numbers similar to my time during Vietnam. Back then I estimate that Black marines were about equal to their proportion in the general population. Friday I was actually shocked at the absence of Blacks from the ranks. My estimate was there were less than 20 out of 576.

Anyone else have similar observations, or a possible explanation as to what might be going on?

As he recalled, many blacks were cooks, and not in combat role at time of Iwo. Having now seen the original post more clearly, I stand corrected on the absence of Blacks at Iwo. I will also tell my dad, who was in the airwing and not on ground.

I live in a large urban area, and have noticed A LOT of Hispanics in the junior ROTC clubs at the local high schools, but not as many blacks (relative to the population at large).

I believe that black Americans remain present in large numbers in the Army and Navy. It would be interesting to see if their numbers have dropped or grown over the past 15 years.