A Vicksburg World War II veteran who received a Congressional Gold Medal last year for his service breaking down the racial barriers of the U.S. Marine Corps has died.

George Long died Sunday at his home in Vicksburg. He was 87, though military records officially list his age as 90.

Long lied about his age and volunteered for the Marine Corps in 1942 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order requiring the military to accept recruits of all races. Long was assigned to Montford Point, adjacent to Camp Lejeune, N.C. The camp housed the first group of African-Americans allowed into the Marine Corps.

“I’ve known him most of my life. He went in the Marine Corps when he was 16. He forged his signature,” said Wardell Wince, a fellow Marine Corps veteran.

In 2012, surviving Montford Point Marines received a Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Long was unable to attend because of medical issues. The Gold Medal is the highest civilian honor issued by the federal government.

U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran presented the medal to Long last August during a ceremony at the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Veterans Medical Center in Jackson.

“He came out of an era that was very dark in human history. However, those men bravely served the county without reserve,” said Steven Houston, a 22-year Air Force veteran who along with Wince helped Long get the medal he had earned.

Long was overwhelmed by receiving the honor, his daughter Felicia Hawkins has said.

“There’s so much to say but it’s not enough,” Hawkins said Tuesday. “I’m just speechless right now.”

Approximately 20,000 African-American Marines received basic training at Montford Point, before the Marine Corps became fully integrated in 1949.  Of those, about 13,000 would serve overseas. Many were the first African-American Marines to see action in World War II, notably at Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Mariana Islands.

“We were so segregated at that time that I wasn’t even recognized as a soldier,” Long told the Vicksburg Post in 2012.

At Montford Point, all the ranking officers were white, but drill instructors including Sgt. Maj. Gilbert “Hashmark” Johnson were black. Johnson was so influential that Montford Point was renamed in his honor in 1974, two years after his death.

The number of men who served at the camp is dwindling.

“I’m in direct contact with about 700 who are still alive, but I truly think there are about 3,000 of them,” said Dr. James T. Averhart Jr., president of the national Montford Point Marine Association, Inc.

Several Montford Point Marines live in the Jackson area, Averhart said.