Ambassador Theodore R. Britton can still remember the gentleman who told him the secrets to avoiding seasickness after graduating from recruit training in the 1940s.
Britton was one of 20,0000 Black Montford Point Marines to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps after President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order establishing the Fair Employment Practices Commission.
Britton, who is now retired and 97 years old, says he decided to enlist in the Marine Corps despite it being segregated because he possessed the same pioneer spirit that led his father to courageously move their family from the segregated South to New York for a better life.
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