Colonel Stacey L. Taylor, assistant chief of staff, manpower, Marine Forces Pacific, talks about Melvin G. Carter during his promotion ceremony to brigadier general at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia, August 9, 2019. Carter grew up in York, Pennsylvania and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1985. He was awarded a NROTC Scholarship to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps upon graduating in 1992. During most of his 34 years of service, Carter has served as a Marine Air Ground Task Force Intelligence Officer and has completed multiple tours overseas in combat zones to include Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan, Operations Balkan Justice and Restore Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He will now serve as the Director of Intelligence, Headquarters Marine Corps. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Servante R. Coba)
Transcript
[Interviewer] Go ahead and state your rank, your full name, and the command that you come from.
Hey, I’m Colonel Stacey L. Taylor, Assistant Chief of Staff G1, at Marine Forces Pacific, Hawaii.
[Interviewer] Excellent, Excellent. Could you please spell your full name, sir?
S-T-A-C-E-Y L Taylor: T-A-Y-L-O-R.
[Interviewer] Excellent, that’s just making sure that we have it correct for our caption.
Oh, awesome.
[Interviewer] So, how long have you been in the Marine Corps, sir?
I’ve been in Marine Corps for 25 and a half years.
[Interviewer] Excellent. And why did you choose to do the Marine Corps, sir?
Specifically, Brigadier General Jared Carter. I met him when I was in Mississippi, and that inspired me to become a Marine.
[Interviewer] Excellent. Were you a mischief man at Morehouse College, sir?
I was.
[Interviewer] When you met him, where was he at? Was he a senior?
Yeah, so I was a freshman, four classmate shipman, at the time, it was mate shipman second class, uh, Jerry Carter. So, he was about two years ahead of me, and he was my, the first trainer that I had at the ROTC program there at Morehouse college.
[Interviewer] If you could, describe him as he was back then.
Wow. That awesome. If I had to put it simply, he was just awesome. So, he was a very squared-away gentleman. He cared, he was very sharp, and everything he did was just top notch. If I would describe him to anyone would be a Michael Jordan. He was the Michael Jordan of our NROTC unit. He made everyone around him better.
[Interviewer] Excellent. So, in a sense, he was in a leadership position above you, sir?
What, yeah he was a senior, he was a senior mate shipman. By the time school started, he was our drill team commander. And I was a member on the drill team.
[Interviewer] So, the question I gotta ask with that: was there any, ever a time that you two butted heads or he might’ve had to square you away?
Oh there was often times he had to square me away. Particularly, as a member of the drill team, he was trying to instill discipline in the drill team, so that we could go out and compete. So anytime, as a matter of fact, it was the first time I ever drill with a weapon, and he told us how to drill with a weapon, he made sure that the entire team was together, and when we were not together, he had a way of discipline us through the way he talk to us, through the way he made us practice over and over, in order to make sure that we became better.
[Interviewer] Would you mind sharing it with us? Or is that a trade secret?
Not much of a secret, I mean, he was just very dedicated; he wanted to be the best at whatever he did, whatever he was a part of. So we just learned to do things over and over and over, took whatever time was needed until we got it right. As matter of fact, Brigadier General Carter made sure we trained until we couldn’t get it wrong.
[Interviewer] Excellent. When you graduated, and you moved on and commissioned as a Marine Corps Officer, were you able to keep in touch with General Carter?
Yeah, absolutely. Me and Brigadier General Carter had stayed in contact, my children call him uncle, his children call me uncle. He always stayed in contact just to see how things were goin’. To make sure that we were progressing well. I mean, he didn’t give up his Michael Jordan duties after we left college. He assured that we were still getting better everyday.
[Interviewer] Excellent. Since that time, had your paths ever intercepted?
Our paths never dissected. Brigadier General Carter, no matter what he’s done, I mean, you know he’s been busy in his career, he always made time for friends. One thing that stands out to me is, I emailed Brigadier General Carter about a year or so ago, I didn’t get a response from him in email. Until I got a phone call, and he said, “Stacey, I don’t email my friends, I call them.” That’s the kind of person Brigadier General Carter is.
[Interviewer] So, fast-forward, to, say, here today, flew all the way out from Hawaii to see this, how do you feel about him getting pinned to the rank of general?
I couldn’t feel better. Not only me, I left my family in Hawaii even at the first week of school, when my wife thought it was important enough for me to fly to be here for this promotion. Because it doesn’t just, it’s not just big for the Carter Family, it’s big for our family, it’s big for the Morehouse NROTC family. Brigadier General Carter will be the first Marine general out of our unit, so he’s definitely a trailblazer for us, this is something I could not miss.
[Interviewer] Excellent. One question I’ve asked everyone is how do you feel about seeing Mr. Braxton (mumbles) retired? (mumbles) rank of general on his call?
Well it just brings me back to the Morehouse unit in itself. It’s a historical black university. Not many black officers in the Marine Corps. One thing that we do understand, particularly coming out of Morehouse NROTC, is men like (mumbles) that enabled us to wear this uniform to wear this rank, we stand on their shoulders. So, we love serving our country, and this sacrifice that they made which enables us to serve in the capacity that we do today.
[Interviewer] Sir, is there anything else that you would like to add?
That’s it. We’re just a happy family at Morehouse NROTC.
[Interviewer] I appreciate it, sir.