Lt. Monroe Allen Scott Biography-1
Lt. Monroe A. Scott & His 1943 Bulova Minute Man
A WW2 Black Officer in a Segregated Army
"The logic of segregated units demanded a black officer corps, but there were never enough officers to command all the black units. In 1942 only 0.35 percent of the Negroes in the Army were officers". Lt. Monroe Scott was one of them.
Lt. Monroe Allen Scott (1920–1993) was a career Army officer from 1937-1957. He achieved great success despite growing up in a completely segregated society, from his rural Texas education through his WW2 service in North Africa and Europe.
Monroe was a member of a pioneering Black family of ranchers from rural Refugio County Texas. After graduating from the Refugio Colored School in 1937, Monroe enlisted in the 25th Infantry "Buffalo Soldiers" (the Army’s “only active colored combat regiment”) at Fort Huachuca AZ. Through his diligence and Army training, Monroe was rapidly promoted from a Private to a Lieutenant by 1942. In 1943, he was assigned as a Logistics officer to a segregated Port Battalion (longshoremen) unit, and stationed at the Port of Oran, Algeria.
Prior to being shipped out to North Africa in 1943, Monroe purchased a 10kt gold curved-case Bulova Minute Man watch, and had it custom inscribed “Lt. Monroe A. Scott ~ O1894790 ~ U.S.A”. (O1894790 is Scott’s Army Officer’s service number).
After the War, Monroe was a member of the Army Corps of Engineers. He retired from the military in 1957 as a Lt. Colonel. In 1962 Monroe joined the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), managing logistics projects in Cambodia, Honduras, Bangladesh, and Chad. He may have also been part of the CIA at this time.
Scott married in 1946; he and his wife Rene had four children -- Patrice, Don, Suzanne, and Denise. After retiring from USAID, Monroe moved back to Southern California. He died on September 12, 1993, and was buried in Fort Rosencrans National Cemetery in San Diego.
