Piscataway Veteran Presented with Congressional Gold Medal

Recently, Congress signed an order honoring all African-American Marines who trained at the historically segregated Montford Point training camp in North Carolina, and that honor has extended to the area with the recognition of Piscataway resident Cpl. Charles Brown Jr.

Brown was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday afternoon at the Parker’s Landing Lane Care Residence in New Brunswick, where he now lives.

The room was filled with Brown's family, friends and dignitaries, including Congressman Frank Pallone, who presented Brown with the medal.

According to a press release from Pallone's office, Brown served in the Marines from 1944 through 1946, stationed in the Pacific Theatre and at Iwo Jima.

According to Pallone's office, Congress last year signed an order that would bestow upon all Montford Point African-American Marines the Congressional Gold Medal. It was signed into law in November 2011 by President Barack Obama.

"Montford Point Camp was created in North Carolina as a separate training camp for African-American Marine Corps recruits and nearly 20,000 Marines passed through Montford Point between 1942 and 1949," the release said. "The Marines who trained there went on to fight for the U.S. overseas in WWII and pave the way for generations of African-American marines and servicemen."

"I can't emphasize how important this is," Pallone said, at the ceremony.

Pallone said the following civil rights movement of the 1960's has roots in the Marines at Montford Point.

"It really all began, in many ways, with the Montford Point Marines," he said.

Brown's eldest son, Maurice, described the event as a "joyous occasion," and said he remembered sitting in front of the television with his father as a young boy, watching Army movies of the time.

His father would point out the names of battleships and battlefields and weapons to him, he said, but "very seldom" talked about the war itself.

"It felt good (to be) near my father and learning about the role of African-Americans in World War II," he said.

Maurice ended the ceremony on personal note by introducing Kahron Smothers, 16, the great-grandson of Charles Brown, and presenting him with his great-grandfather's dog tags from his time in the Marines.

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