Brig. Gen. Twitty says, “We have always moved to the sound of the gun when our country has called us.”

February is Black History Month, and in recognition, Staff Sargent Jayson Price of the United States Marine Corps has produced a short video of service members in Kabul, Afghanistan, discussing the history of African-American military service. As Brig. Gen. Stephen Twitty points out, “African-Americans have served in every single war that our country has embarked upon.” Although for a majority of time the armed forces were segregated in much the same way the rest of the US was, Executive Order 9981, signed by President Truman in 1948 was one of the earliest examples of nationwide desegregation in the US.

With the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” almost a year and a half ago, which banned openly gay military personnel, the announcement earlier this week that some benefits will soon be extended to the same-sex partners of service members, and openly gay cadets taking their same-sex dates to the West Point winter formal, the military seems to be leading the way once again in necessary social and cultural change.