When Charles Armstrong was 25 years old in 1951, he stood at the vanguard of the U.S. Army’s advance toward racial integration.
For Mr. Armstrong, then a newly commissioned Black officer in the 2nd Infantry Division, that meant leading a mostly White combat squadron on the front lines of Korea under extremely harsh conditions. Frostbitten extremities were commonplace, along with exhaustion from trekking up rugged hills, and unrelenting violence and trauma from firefights, mines and grenades that left scores dead and wounded.
“The White soldiers had no hangs-ups about being with me because they realized they had to follow me if they wanted to get out alive,” said Mr. Armstrong in the 2004 book “We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans, from World War II to the War in Iraq,” by journalist and professor Yvonne Latty. “Some used the ‘n’ word, but I got over it.”
He largely ignored the racial slurs, he said in the book, and instead relied on his leadership skills to ultimately earn the respect of his troops.
Mr. Armstrong was 93 when he died July 12 at a nursing home in Silver Spring, Md. The cause was congestive heart failure, said his wife, Veronica Armstrong. Until his memory began to fade in recent years, he constantly shared stories of his war exploits with family and friends.
“Whenever he had an audience, it was his time to shine,” said his wife. “Because he was the senior of the group, everyone stopped and listened.”
The pivotal moment of Mr. Armstrong’s combat service occurred during the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge in October 1951, when a bullet shattered his femur, sending him tumbling down a rocky mountain. He was evacuated on a gurney under a hail of bullets. His right leg below the knee needed to be amputated to save his life. Still, he felt lucky that after 13 months of combat in Korea, he was returning stateside. He received the Purple Heart.
He requested a transfer to the Army Corps of Engineers, thinking he could put his college degree in architectural engineering to good use but was told the branch wasn’t yet racially integrated. He described in the book how he became frustrated while assigned to a “flunky” desk job at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C.
After he was passed over for several promotions, he filed for a discharge and left the Army in 1956. It wasn’t an easy decision for Mr. Armstrong, who was also a World War II veteran, because he had planned to make the military his career. Instead, he moved to the Washington area and worked more than 15 years as an architect for the Department of Housing and Urban Development before seeking an early retirement because of his disability in 1973.
Mr. Armstrong, who lived in Upper Marlboro, Md., served as a steward, trustee, choir member and Sunday school teacher at Trinity AME Zion Church in Washington.
His first wife, Ora Armstrong, died in 1998.
In addition to his wife of 21 years, the former Veronica Scott of Upper Marlboro, survivors include a son from his first marriage, Jernell R. Armstrong of Fort Washington, Md.; three stepchildren, Candace Lee of Fort Washington, Jacob Wilson of Washington and Michael Wilson of Upper Marlboro; and six grandchildren.
Charles Robert Armstrong was born Dec. 26, 1926, in Winston-Salem, N.C. His parents were life insurance agents and entrepreneurs who owned a gas station, a store and a laundromat.
He graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1950 and received a master of science degree from Southern Illinois University in 1974.
“The sound of [the] bombs and the gunfire robbed me of my hearing,” Mr. Armstrong said in “We Were There.”
“Sometimes I regret leaving the Army. I was going to stay thirty years, be a role model, become a general but they found it unbearable to promote me. They passed over me five times. I knew it was a losing battle but I wanted to serve my country.”
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