Alabama veteran honored with Congressional Gold Medal

TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man who served in World War II among nation's first black Marines has been awarded one of the federal government's highest honors. WSFA-TV reports 87-year-old Robert Freeman was presented the Congressional Gold Medal on Friday for military service dating back to the 1940s. That's when Freeman trained alongside other African-American recruits to the Marines Corps at the segregated Montford Point Camp in North Carolina. Afterward he deployed with his fellow Marines to World War II. Freeman was presented with the medal by U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican, during a ceremony in Tuskegee, where Freeman has lived since leaving the military. He worked for four decades at the VA Medical Center. Freeman says the award came "a few years behind, but I really appreciate it."