DETROIT — Black Marine Corps veterans from Michigan who endured rigid segregation during World War II have received national recognition for their military service.

The soldiers went through the all-African American Montford Point training camp in North Carolina before heading for duty in the war.

In October, the U.S. House voted to award the Montford Point Marines with the Congressional Gold Medal. It's the highest civilian honor given by Congress. About 400 veterans of the camp went to Washington in June to receive the medal, and a number unable to make that trip received it Saturday at a Detroit police training facility.

Eighty-seven-year-old William Cook said that his childhood in the South prepared him for the segregation at the camp in a way that northern natives weren't.