Ohioan among first black Marines to be honored

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio - An Ohio man who's among the few survivors left from a group remembered as the first black Marines will be on his way to Washington to receive one of the nation's highest honors.

Jonas Bender of Yellow Springs in southwest Ohio will be presented with the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.

The World War II veteran is one of 400 Marines still living out of the 20,000 who went through training at a segregated boot camp between 1942 and 1949.

President Barack Obama signed a bill last fall that honors the soldiers.

Bender was a radar operator in the Pacific during the war. He tells the Dayton Daily News that the honor is redemptive for so many who served without much notice for many years.