Master Gunnery Sgt. Carroll Braxton (Ret.) Interview

Video by Cpl. Servante Coba

Marine Corps Recruiting Command

Aug. 9, 2019 | 4:35

Master Gunnery Sgt. Carroll Braxton (Ret.), a Montford Point Marine, talks about pinning Melving 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)