Lee: This is none of my business (and way past my "time frame" research interest), but I hope that someone has or will stick their nose into this tale of the USMC's first black officer(maybe even the Corps will take on this task).
My own interest in Henry O. Flipper, the first black to graduate from WestPoint and be commissioned an army officer (l877) and the first of his race to get tossed out on court-martial charges (mid-l882) prompts this message.
I'd like to think that someone may have recorded Frederick Branch's
military memories (asa is now being done with many WWII vets)--and if not this ,then efforts will be made to examine/secure his papers.
Those of us who struggle with the tale of U.S.C.T. volunteers,
Old Army black regulars (aka Buffalo Soldiers), and the "no wine for you" black A.E.F. troops, know full well the importance of such personal papers/documents.
For sure Branch's l945 commission is not the same l863-65, or l898, or
l9l7--but time sure does fly and events in l945 that are living memory or the fairly recent past for some of us will in short order become the distant--but let's hope--not the forgotten past.
I ain't volunteering for this task--but here's my wish that
someone, some organization, looks into and records the service of Mr. Branch.

Tom Phillips