LORD CRAVEN MEETING - November 17, 2012

The  Lord Craven  Chapter held their fall meeting on  Saturday, November 17, 2012 in the Nicholas Room  at the Reserve Golf Course at St. James Plantation in Southport, NC.  The meeting was attended by 37 dames.

The guest speaker was Dr. Clarence Willie, Lt. Col., USMC, retired, and resident of Winding River.  He presented a slide show and spoke to us about the Montford Point Marines. These marines were African Americans, who enlisted and served in WWII. They were segregated and trained at different facilities than white troops.  The Montford Marines were trained at Montford Point, now named Camp Johnson, near Camp Lejeune.

Dr. Willie served as interviewer and consultant for a documentary production entitled "The Marines of Montford Point: Fighting for Freedom," which was produced by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.  This documentary was narrated by Louis Gossett, Jr. and aired nationally on PBS.  This documentary chronicled the experiences of these first African Americans to serve as United States Marines. 

In 2012 Dr. Willie completed his work on his book entitled "African American voices from IWO JIMA: PERSONAL ACCOUNTS OF THE BATTLE."  In his book he interviewed eleven of the veterans who were among the 1,000 African American who participated in the Iwo Jima campaign. This book is available through amazon.com.

Dr. Willie brought with him two retired marines, Darryl P. Monroe and F. M. Hooper, Jr.  Mr. Hooper was one of the eleven men who participated in the Iwo Jima campaign and was one of the veterans that Dr. Willie had interviewed for his book.  Mr. Hooper was also the recipient of a  Congressional Medal of Honor Award presented  to him as a member of this elite group of Marines.  He proudly wore that medal to our meeting.  This program turned out to be both very interesting and appropriate as we remember and honor all veterans especially during the month of November.

Darrell P.Monroe,  Bonnie Becmer, Dr. Clarence Willie, Carol Canales,
 F.M. Hopper, Jr. (Recipient of the Medal of Honor) and .Nora Hickam

 

Donations to the veterans in Fayetteville, NC.

Colonial Dames member, Pat Elsaesser spoke about her trip on Oct. 19th to Hertford NC to the Newbold White house there to attend the live oak tree planting dedication in honor of Mrs Shirley Spaeth who is an Honorary President General and is beloved by all NC Dames.