Colonel Dave Burton, program manager for intelligence systems at Marine Corps Systems Command, 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] Gonna start out basic. If you could, state your rank, your full name, and where you’re coming from.
Uh, Colonel Dave Burton. I am the program manager for intel systems at Marine Corps Systems Command.
[Interviewer] And where’d you grow up from, sir?
Well, I was actually born in the West Indies in Jamaica, but I grew up in Northeast DC.
[Interviewer] This Master Guns that I worked for at RS Baltimore, same exact story, West Indies, Jamaica.
Okay.
[Interviewer] Grew up in D.C. though.
Sure.
[Interviewer] Yeah, Master Guns Richard Madd, You can still find him around DC.
Okay.
[Interviewer] Yeah, so how do you know Gerald Carter?
Well actually, Jerry and I were in school together at Morehouse College, so we met around 1989 when I was a graduating senior and he was coming into the MECEP program. He was a corporal at the time, I believe, but even then, you can tell with the way that he carried himself, that he was someone who would go far in the Corps.
[Interviewer] You could tell back then that this was someone who was definitely destined to become a leader of the Marines.
Absolutely, he was a leader then, and he obviously continues to lead now. But just the way that he interacted with people. When you met him, he would look you in the eye and you could tell that there was genuine concern and interest in what you were saying. And he was also just very helpful because he was prior enlisted and he had experience in the operating forces. He brought that back to the Marines, was very helpful with preparing for Officer Candidate School and those things.
[Interviewer] That right there just kind of answered a bunch of different questions that I had right there, that’s great. What attracted you, just kind of go back, dial it back a bit, what attracted you to come to Morehouse College back then?
Well, Morehouse College is known for producing leaders. It’s the school where Martin Luther King, Jr. graduated from, so it was the history that was associated with the college and me personally just wanting to be associated with that leadership community and gain from it.
[Interviewer] So have you, once you left and went to OCS and eventually commissioned and everything, did you have any contact or any interaction, or did your paths cross with Gerald Carter again?
Absolutely, we saw each other periodically as we both served and was promoted in our careers. He would go off and do things with JSOC and then come back to the operating forces. I knew him when he was the Battalion Commander for 2nd Radio Battalion and his time as a MEF G-2, so our careers have criss-crossed numerous times across the years.
[Interviewer] Excellent, excellent. How do you feel about him being promoted to General?
Oh, we’re very proud of him, but there was always this something extra about Jerry that we knew that he was destined for greatness. So we’re obviously just very, very proud of him that he’s achieved this next step in his progression, but there was also, there was a realization that he was gonna do something special, so we were not at all surprised by it.
[Interviewer] I’ve got one more question. Mr. Braxton, Mast Guns retired original Montford Point Marine, pinned one of his stars on his collar. What is the significance of that to you to see a Montford Point Marine pin the star of general onto Jerry Carter?
You know, it reminded me of the birthday ball cake ceremony, where the oldest Marine passes the cake to the youngest Marine, symbolizing passing wisdom and experience. So we look at what the Montford Point Marines did in terms of establishing themselves in the Marine Corps as basically being the building blocks that were put in place that resulted in my success, in General Carter’s success. So we see them as being the foundation for what was built for African Americans in the Marine Corps.
[Interviewer] I think we’re good, sir.
Okay.