By MELISSA HELLMANN | The Seattle Times | Published: January 14, 2021
(Tribune News Service) — A Congressional Gold Medal recipient for his service in World War II, Clayton Pitre was a trailblazer in the U.S. Marines, a master storyteller and a staunch advocate for education.
Pitre died Jan. 1 at Harborview Medical Center of complications from a heart condition. He was 96.
Born on June 30, 1924, Pitre was raised on a farm in Louisiana, one of seven children, where he spoke Creole French along with English. He left school in the ninth grade because there was a lack of further education opportunities in his area.
In 1943, he was one of the first Black men to join the U.S. Marines and trained at the segregated Camp Montford Point in North Carolina. During his service in World War II, Pitre was stationed in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, and later fought in the Battle of Okinawa in Japan. He oversaw the evacuation of the Japanese army in China before he was honorably discharged in 1946.