When David Culmer was growing up in Philadelphia, he knew early on that he wanted to be a Marine. “I saw this guy who was ten feet tall, and he had gold stripes, a blue uniform, a red stripe down his pants, and he stood like a giant,” Culmer recalled when he spoke to The Epoch Times. “I wanted to be like him. He had pride, he had statuary, he had everything I wanted as a six-year-old kid. That’s why I joined the Marines.” That was over 80 years ago. Since then, Culmer has turned that flicker of a childhood dream into reality. He has served as a United States Marine in Vietnam, China, Japan, Okinawa, Thailand, and the Philippine Islands. A Congressional Gold Medal recipient, Culmer also has the unique distinction of being a member of the last platoon at Montford Point in North Carolina, a segregated camp where …