2RHPZ
04-22-2005, 03:32 AM
Mourners Gather at Quantico to Honor Marines' First Black Officer
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 21, 2005; Page B01
Most were there out of plain love, some out of duty and many others, strangers, came to the rolling green lawn of Quantico National Cemetery on a warm spring day to thank a man they never knew.
Here was Lance Cpl. Sha'ahn Williams, 27, who hadn't put on her dress uniform in a while but did so yesterday for Capt. Frederick C. Branch, the first African American officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. She came early. She fidgeted with her ribbons -- "I'm always self-conscious about my ribbons," she said -- which were barely crooked. She wanted to look perfect. She stood in the sun and waited for his funeral procession to arrive, looking out over the grass.
Link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6003-2005Apr20.html)
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 21, 2005; Page B01
Most were there out of plain love, some out of duty and many others, strangers, came to the rolling green lawn of Quantico National Cemetery on a warm spring day to thank a man they never knew.
Here was Lance Cpl. Sha'ahn Williams, 27, who hadn't put on her dress uniform in a while but did so yesterday for Capt. Frederick C. Branch, the first African American officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. She came early. She fidgeted with her ribbons -- "I'm always self-conscious about my ribbons," she said -- which were barely crooked. She wanted to look perfect. She stood in the sun and waited for his funeral procession to arrive, looking out over the grass.
Link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6003-2005Apr20.html)