Charles D. “Chuck” Melson served as the Chief Historian for the U.S. Marine Corps, at Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps in Washington, DC, and the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. His military service included 25 years as a U.S. Marine. Charles was also a joint historian with the U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command. He received the General Edwin Simmons-Henry Shaw Award for public historians, the General Leonard Chapman Medal for professional military educators, and the commemorative Rhodesian Independence Medal. His education includes degrees in Liberal Arts from St. John College, Annapolis, and in History and Fine Arts from Sonoma State University, California. Chuck and his family currently live on Kent Island in Maryland.