Master Gunnery Sgt. Carroll Braxton (Ret.), a Montford Point Marine, talks about pinning Melvin G. Carter to the rank of brigadier general during a promotion ceremony 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 34 years of service, Carter has served as 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.
Braxton was one of the 20,000 African American Marines who from 1942-1949 received basic training at a segregated facility, Camp Montford Point, in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Braxton served in the Pacific Theater during World War II, seeing action in the battles of Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. He was called back to duty in 1950 during the Korean War where he served as a combat instructor. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1980.
(U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Servante R. Coba)
Transcript
W. Braxton. I’m from Manassas, Virginia. Well, I had a brother in the army and two uncles in the army. So their uniform was just the message to me. So the marine Corps inspired me as a youngster growing up in Manassas. Would you believe the Marines came through Manassas on Labor Day? I guess that was the only place for them to go. ’cause Manassas was close by. So that was my inspiration to join the Marine Corps. Well, other than hell, I guess you might say that’s what it was like. It wasn’t inspirational at all. Well, for one thing, they told us we shouldn’t be there, that we would never be Marines. There wasn’t any place for black Marines. Well, we thought about the other black units. Used to have the Tuskegee Airmen, the Buffalo soldiers, and other black men and women that went through different other organizations. So we figured if they could make it, we could make it. Very, very good. In my young day, I never thought such a thing would happen. Very good. A lot of changes have taken place. The way they treated us and dogged us, we didn’t even think we would survive really until we got overseas. Well, the first little island I went on was Mbanika. A lot of people never heard of it and can’t even spell it. And then I went to Saipan, and I ended up on Okinawa. I was on Okinawa when the two bombs were dropped. Well, you might would say combat, little training as a combat instructor, to instruct the young recruits coming overseas, and then supply. That was the biggest thing in supply.
[Interviewer] When you were serving overseas, what were some of the challenges that you faced then?
Japs. We didn’t have a challenge once we got overseas as far as integration was concerned. In other words, I’ll tell you that those bullets didn’t have black or white on them. It was a challenge, but we made it. But it was much better overseas than it was in the United States. Well, when I came back home from World War II, I didn’t wear the uniform. I went to work, and I went to school. Until from ’46 to 1950, I was going to school and working in the government. In 1950, they volunteered me in for the Korean War. That was different. Yeah. Through my President of my chapter here at Quantico.
[Interviewer] How did you feel when he asked you to (mumbles)?
It was one of the greatest honors I ever had.
[Interviewer] Nice. How do you think General Carter will help shape the Marine Corps?
Well, from what I heard today, I think he’ll do a good job.
[Interviewer] He’s one of now seven general officers in the Marine Corps who’s African-American.
Seven African-Americans? You see, I didn’t know. That’s wonderful. It’s great to be a former Marine, and I wouldn’t take anything for it whatsoever. The training, the camaraderie, and the people I’ve met through the Marine Corps, I wouldn’t take anything for it. Once we were integrated, you didn’t tell the difference. I mean, the white Marines really did a lot for us in North Carolina where we went through boot camp. I mean, when we were going on living there, everything was segregated, but the white Marines made sure that nobody bothered us. Yes.