Photo By Staff Sgt. Tiffany Emery | Sgt. Brian Knowles, an archivist, preserves architectural plans, Muncie, Indiana, Oct....... read more read more
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NEW ORLEANS - Gunnery Sgt. Brian Knowles, a Marine Corps reservist at Headquarters Battalion, Marine Forces Reserve, is one of the few Marines to have served at the Field History Branch. This unit is part of Marine Corps History Division on Marine Corps Base Quantico. The Marine Corps is the only branch whose field historians consist of only reservists. Approximately 12 to 20 Marine reservists occupy the Field History Branch, which covers all of the Marine Corps by recording and preserving its institutional memory and its historical experience.
Knowles enlisted into the Marine Corps reserves August 2001, initially in the communications field. He served nine years assigned to 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, where he conducted two deployments to Iraq as a field wireman before his promotion to staff sergeant.
“I was promoted to staff sergeant and I needed a staff NCO (noncommissioned officer) billet,” said Knowles. “I knew of the Field Historian Branch from my undergraduate internship and I contacted that unit and told them I needed a billet. I wanted to further my experience in the Marine Corps and I would love to do the job and they took a chance on me as a young staff sergeant.”
In 2010, Knowles began serving as a field historian with the Marine Corps History Division for the next five years. Field historians look at all elements of Marine Corps life and culture. Knowles was able to travel the world on orders collecting information to help preserve the institutional culture of the Marine Corps.
“As Marines we are able to integrate with other units for a few days, weeks or months and record what those units are doing, bring it back, and add it to the Marine Corps University Archive,” Knowles explained.
While not on orders, Knowles worked as a federal employee at the National Archives in Washington D.C. Similar to his field historian duties, Knowles helped preserve the records of the U.S. Government.
“The beauty of being a reservist is that you’re able to have two careers and I just so happened to be lucky enough to have both of my careers nearly complement each other,” said Knowles. “Working at the National Archive, as an archivist, my historian duties as a Marine complemented and helped me understand more of American history and vice versa.”
Knowles left the National Archives to attend graduate school in 2014. He graduated with a Masters of Science in Historic Preservation in 2015. That same year, Knowles was promoted to gunnery sergeant. Once finishing his education goals, Knowles obtained a job from the Communication Strategy and Operations deputy director of MARFORRES, to help create publicity products and events to celebrate the Marine Corps Reserve Centennial. He conducted research to provide information and properly celebrate the past 100 years of the Marine Corps Reserve.
“The Marine Corps made me capable of adapting and learning the skills required to create products. This allowed me to be a better historian and archivist because it blended over to both careers. Knowing how to use various programs helped me digitize historic materials and share them with the rest of the world,” Knowles said.
After 18 months of working on the centennial project, Knowles obtained new orders to the United States Africa Command based in Stuttgart, Germany. He was at AFRICOM for three years, where he conducted research and wrote articles. He was assigned with writing a 10-year history of the command. It was published and sent out to all U.S. embassies throughout Africa to showcase what all branches of the U.S. military have been doing to support allies and partners in Africa. At the same time, AFRICOM hired Knowles as a civilian archivist, to organize and preserve the command’s historical records.
Upon completion of his AFRICOM tour, Knowles was assigned his current orders with COMMSTRAT at MARFORRES. He also obtained a new job with the U.S. Air Force in the civilian sector as the wing historian for the 434th Air Refueling Wing at Grissom Air Reserve Base.
Throughout his career, Knowles has visited 46 states and 27 countries, helped create several books and a series of articles for Leatherneck Magazine. Knowles plans on retiring from the Marine Corps Reserve in 2023 and wants to continue writing articles in his free time.
“For both of my careers, I doubt I would be nearly as successful in either one without the other,” Knowles shared. “I consider myself one of the luckiest Marines serving today because of what I get to do.”
| Date Taken: | 02.11.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.11.2022 10:23 |
| Story ID: | 414510 |
| Location: | NEW ORLEANS, LA, US |
| Hometown: | ST. LOUIS, MO, US |
| Web Views: | 143 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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HISTORY DIVISION
FIELD HISTORY BRANCH
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