Ruffin Walker Dawson was born in Saint Francisville, Louisiana in 1924 [Annotator's Note: November 1924]. He grew up on a farm. They raised chickens, hogs, and cows. They grew potatoes, tomatoes, corn, and watermelon. He would work on the farm in the summertime. Farming was rewarding because they did not have to buy too much. He went to an all-African American school until the 11th grade. He was drafted in 1943 out of high school. He wanted to be in the Marine Corps because a good friend of his was in the Marine Corps. Franklin Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] in 1942, made it possible for black Marines to join the Marine Corps. He was almost put in the Navy. Parris Island [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in Port Royal, South Carolina] was an all-white camp. They set up a camp in Jacksonville, North Carolina for the Black Marines [Annotator's Note: Camp Montford Point in Jacksonville, North Carolina]. They were segregated into two different camps. He had never been away from home or out of Louisiana before. He went through discriminatory practices at Montford Point which was part of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Dawson went through nine weeks of training. They had to run everywhere they went. They did not get to go on liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] for nine months. They thought the white officers were hard on them because they had to go through rigorous training. After recruit training, he went to anti-aircraft training. He was part of the 51st Defense Battalion. It was their job to defend an island after the Marines had taken it. Dawson was an ammunition man. They shot down one plane. They were trained to utilize the resources they had. He was in a unit that used machine guns. They were trained the best they could be to defend the islands. Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan] had 19,000 casualties. They were reluctant to go there. Dawson was in an all-Black outfit. There were three light-skinned men that joined their outfits. The Marine Corps did not have medics they had corpsmen [Annotator's Note: enlisted medical specialist in the US Navy who may also serve in the US Marine Corps]. There were no black corpsmen.

Ruffin Walker Dawson [Annotator's Note: with the 51st Defense Battalion] found out he was going overseas in February 1944. He took a bus to a train station from North Carolina to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. He then boarded a ship and were on it for about 15 days. They landed on a tropical island, Nanumea [Annotator's Note: Nanumea Atoll, Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu)]. He learned he could live away from home. He met people from all walks of life. They had to sleep in close quarters. He would write home while he was in the Pacific. It would take two to three weeks for mail to get to them. Victory Mail [Annotator's Note: postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail] would take a picture of the letter and then send that. He was on the machine gun on the island. Their first casualty got covered up in a foxhole. He was on machine-gun watch every four hours. The only iced drink they had was when they got to the cafeteria. The Navy was in charge of the island. There were some Air Force people there too. There were natives on the island as well. The next island they went to was Funafuti [Annotator's Note: Funafuti Atoll, Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu)]. Their machine guns were already set up for them. Island hopping was to bomb one island, skip the next island, and bomb the next island. They had some Japanese prisoners brought back to them. The Japanese would fight to the last man. They left before the Japanese prisoners were brought to the United States. They were on watch for 24 hours a day on Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands]. They had the same setup. The same dehydrated food. They were on gun duty for four hours a day, and then on guard duty. He never had to fire his weapon. He did not see combat. He had an M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine] and a carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. He never knew those islands existed or that people who lived on them needed missionaries and other people to bring them their food and clothing. They saw people with elephantiasis [Annotator's Note: lymphatic filariasis; caused by parasites transmitted by mosquitos]. If they caught the disease, they would be left there. He was proud to be one of the first Black men in the Marine Corps.

There was a lot of Uncle Sam [Annotator's Note: Uncle Sam; a common national personification of the federal government of the United States] propaganda. Some people Ruffin Walker Dawson knew were not drafted. In December 1945, he was told he would be going back to the United States [Annotator's Note: from his tour in the South Pacific]. They had the points system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] and he did not have enough points to get out. He was sent back to North Carolina and had to serve for another five months. They had to fight the mosquitos. He accumulated enough points by March 1946 to get out. He was happy to get his discharge from the Marine Corps. His mother wanted him to have an education. He went home and entered college in 1947. He graduated from Southern University in Baton Rouge [Annotator's Note: Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana] in 1951 with a BS [Annotator's Note: Bachelor of Science] degree in Social Studies. Then he got a job as an analyst with a sugar refinery for 10 years. After that, he worked for the school board for 25 years. He liked teaching and students. The Marine Corps helped him accept people for who they are. He never knew defacto segregation existed until he was in the Marines. He thought the North [Annotator's Note: Northern states in the United States] was colorblind, but it was not.

The South [Annotator's Note: the Southern states in the United States] was poor and the Northern states were better off. There were no black engineers or pharmacists. For Ruffin Walker Dawson, the walls of segregation have crumbled and are continuing to crumble. It is important to have a museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He took his kid and showed them where and what he went through and the different tanks they used. It shows K-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] which no one liked. The museum was a nice experience. He thinks children should learn about the war because it is their heritage and history. If the United States would not have won, they would be under Nazism or fascism. He was a pioneer in the Marine Corps. He was a pioneer in teaching when the schools integrated [Annotator's Note: the public school system in the United Sates]. He found out children are children no matter what race they are. He was a part of history and long live those who came up with the ideals of democracy.