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Epilogue Interviewee Biographies The brief biographies that follow were compiled primarily from interviews recorded on video tape between 2001 and 2005 for a documentary on the Montford Point Marines. The questions asked were designed to explore the subjects’ experiences as Marines, not their lives after leaving the Corps, although each interviewee was asked to speak about his postservice career. Some responded in considerable detail; others said practically nothing. Since the project and the interview questions focused on the Montford Pointers’ experience as Marines, no further effort was made to persuade the subjects to provide details about their lives after leaving the Corps. Some additional information was obtained by telephone conversations, but contacting all of the interviewees after the initial interview was impossible, as contact information, especially for those interviewed prior to 2004, proved to be no longer reliable. Some of the Montford Point Marines have died since being interviewed. Unfortunately, it is inevitable that others will die before this work is published. Master Sergeant Fred Ash was born on a Mississippi farm and joined the Marine Corps in 1945. A career Marine, he served with occupation forces in Saipan and Guam; in Korea, where he fought in both the Inchon and Chosin Reservoir campaigns; and in Vietnam. After leaving the Corps, he worked with Mayflower Van Lines and eventually retired to live in Jacksonville, North Carolina, where he died in March 2005. Master Sergeant Al Banker grew up in New Orleans. After a career in the Marine Corps, he joined the security forces of Grumman Aerospace Corporation , where he became a senior officer, inspecting plants across the United States. Retired, he resides in Bolivia, North Carolina. Master Sergeant Adner Batts, a native of Edgecombe in rural eastern North Carolina, made the Marine Corps a career. He entered the Corps in 1948, retiring more than twenty years later, after service in Korea and two tours in Vietnam. He resides in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Master Sergeant Turner Blount was born in Keysville, Georgia, and joined the Corps in 1943. During World War II he participated in the invasions of Tinian, Saipan, and Okinawa. He remained in the Corps at the war’s end and served in a motor transport unit stationed at Camp Lejeune and in Japan, where he was at the end of the Korean War. He saw action again in Vietnam. After retiring from the Marines, he settled in Jacksonville, North Carolina, where he worked for Sears. Active in community affairs, he is a four-term member of the Jacksonville City Council. Gunnery Sergeant Melvin Borden was raised on an Alabama farm and joined the Corps in 1948.Trained as a cook and steward, he worked in officers’ clubs and with several generals, serving overseas in Japan, Okinawa, and Korea, as well as other duty stations. He later was a supply instructor at Camp Lejeune , retiring from the Corps in 1968. He then obtained a civil service position at a warehouse on Camp Lejeune, where he worked for twenty-three years before retirement. He resides in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Sergeant Calvin Brown, a native of Lake Charles, Louisiana, served two enlistments in the Marine Corps, first joining in 1946. He fought in the Chosin Reservoir campaign in Korea. After leaving the Corps, he settled in Baltimore , Maryland, where he worked for the Bethlehem Steel Company for thirty-three years, eventually retiring to New Bern, North Carolina. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Carpenter, a native of Washington, D.C., joined the Corps in 1943 after finishing high school. He served stateside as a clerk until 1946, when he was discharged. After receiving a college degree, he reentered the Corps in 1956, obtained a commission, and, working primarily with data processing, rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He lives in retirement in Washington, D.C. Registered Nurse Fannie Coleman, born in Oriental, North Carolina, attended nursing school at Community Hospital in Wilmington. After a career in nursing , she entered local politics in Jacksonville, North Carolina, where she now resides and serves as a member of the City Council. Corporal Thomas Cork, a Kentucky native, joined the Corps after World War II and served in Korea, fighting at both Inchon and the Chosin Reservoir. Returning to Kentucky, he worked as a postal employee for thirty-one years. Retired, he lives in Louisville, Kentucky. Corporal Averitte Corley, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, entered the Corps in 1945 and was recalled for a tour of duty during the Korean War, but served...

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