Commander Carlton G. Philpot, US Navy (Ret.) served nearly 25 years in the Navy in a variety of sea and shore duty assignments. His last active-duty assignment was as an instructor at the Army’s Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he retired in 1994.

 

In May 2015, he retired after serving as an Assistant Professor in the Business Department at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas, and as an adjunct Professor at Columbia College and Webster University.

 

For more than 33 years, he has served as the volunteer Chairman and Project Director of the Buffalo Soldier Educational and Historical Committee, a nonprofit 501c3 corporation. The committee’s primary objectives are to enhance the recognition and awareness of the first-class contributions, service and sacrifices of African-American military units and individuals who have served this country with dignity, courage, bravery, honor and unselfish devotion—despite receiving ‘second-class’ treatment and recognition before and after serving their country.

 

The primary method of honoring these patriotic Americans is through building monuments. Working with various committees, he spearheaded fundraising, development and coordinated the design and construction of seven monuments on Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Most recently, a monument honoring the all-Black Women Army Corps (WAC) unit the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was dedicated on November 30, 2018, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

 

Five of the 6888th veterans attended this historic event. This battalion was the only all-Black Women Army Corps (WAC) unit to be deployed overseas during WWII. The 855 women from forty states and Puerto Rico were shipped first to England in 1945, where they sorted, repackaged and distributed all the military and civilian personnel mail in Europe during a 16-month period. The Army gave them only six months to clear the existing two-year backlogs of nearly 18 million pieces in England, and they did it in just three months and went on to work in France. The 6888th Motto was “No Mail, Low Morale,” and they “broke all records” to ensure soldiers fighting on the war front got their mail from home front.

 

There are seven monuments on the Circle of Firsts and the Walkway of Patriots in the Buffalo Soldier Monument Park on Fort Leavenworth. The first of them is the $1.3 million, 13-foot Buffalo Soldier Horse and Rider statue framed by two ponds and a waterfall. Other commemorative bronze statue honorees include: General Roscoe Robinson, the first African-American four-star general in the Army; Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper, the first AfricanAmerican to graduate from West Point; BG Benjamin Grierson the first White commanding officer assigned to the 10th Cavalry, which formed at Fort Leavenworth, and the first African-American Parachute Battalion in the Armythe famous 555th (“Triple Nickel/Smoke Jumpers”). The first Black paratrooper, SGT Walter Morris, attended the dedication of the 555th Monument.

 

General Powell originated the idea of a establishing a monument to honor the Buffalo Soldiers, and he continued to lend his name and support to the projects committee efforts until his death in October 2021. He was kind enough to mention Commander Philpot in his book, My American Journey, for the work he did on bringing the Buffalo Soldier project to fruition. He was also the featured speaker at the memorial service on November 5, 2021. This event was concurrent with the funeral in Washington, D.C.

 

In the city of Fort Leavenworth, Commander Philpot’s committee donated (on July 22, 2016), a monument that honors Cathay Williams—the only known Female Buffalo Soldier. Following the Civil War, she reversed her name and disguised herself as a man to join the 38th Infantry, Company A, at Jefferson Barracks, Saint Louis, Missouri. The monument is on the front lawn of the Richard Allen Cultural Center and Museum in Leavenworth, Kansas.

 

Commander Philpot is most touched and proudest of the monument he spearheaded that honors the late General Colin L. Powell. It was unveiled at Fort Leavenworth on September 5, 2014. General and Mrs. Powell and 1,000 guests attended the event. The bust was created to “honor him as an American SON, STATESMEN, and as a SOLDIER,” Commander Philpot emphasizes.

 

Featured speaker, Commander Carlton G. Philpot, US Navy (Ret.) and Chairman/Project Director of the Buffalo Soldier Monument Committee, delivers remarks during the memorial ceremony for General Colin L. Powell Nov 5, 2021.

 

Philpot was spearhead of the project that included a monument honoring Powell in the Buffalo Soldier Monument Park’s Circle of Firsts on Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 2014.

 

He is currently actively advocating with a group to obtain the Congressional Gold Medal for the 6888th Central Postal Battalion. He says it is urgent to gain the eight remaining co-sponsors (as of Jan 2022) needed to support the HR 1012 because the surviving women veterans are all over the age of 97 and in delicate health.

 

He is married to the former Othello Hamler of Northport, Alabama, and they have two daughters and four grandchildren—"three young men and one beautiful, talented and very intelligent young lady,” who he says he tries his best to “spoil at every opportunity.”

 

In the future, he plans to devote his time and skills at raising money and awareness to benefit those with the health challenge of Sickle Cell Disease. His passion is driven by the fact that one of his grandsons was born with this genetic condition.