Louisville native and United States Marine Corps veteran John Davis is a senior majoring in .

After attending a small liberal arts college in central Kentucky, Davis decided college was not for him and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2012, where he served until 2022. 

Davis then enrolled at the J.B. Speed School of Engineering, which he calls the “best engineering school in Kentucky.”

As an infantryman in the Marine Corps, Davis worked his way up to sergeant, infantry squad leader and marksmanship instructor.

After boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, his first assignment was with the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion in Twentynine Palms, California as a scout.

While assigned to Twentynine Palms he deployed twice to the Pacific. During the first deployment, he was attached to the Combat Assault Battalion in Okinawa. During his second deployment, he was with the Battalion Landing Team of 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment part of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which embarked aboard the USS Green Bay and the USS Bon Homme Richard.

In addition to Okinawa, Japan, his deployments took him to Thailand and the Philippines.

After reenlisting, Davis was stationed in Virginia at the Formal Marksmanship Training Center as a Designated Marksmanship Instructor. At first, he worked on a range facility on Naval Dam Neck Annex in Virginia Beach.

In 2018, the Formal Marksmanship Training Center’s operations moved to a new range facility aboard Naval Weapons Station Yorktown.

While assigned to the Formal Marksmanship Training Center, Davis’ duties included range safety officer and coach for individual shooters, who ranged from private to general.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March 2020, Davis’ unit was the only active Marine Corps range facility on the eastern seaboard. 

This caused the unit to become extremely busy. He recalls working virtually every weekend for the rest of 2020, as reserve units from as far as New York were bused down to meet their numbers.

Davis is married, with two young kids. He is currently working part-time in his third co-op at GE Appliances and anticipates working at GE after graduating from UofL.

Knuckles, from Atlanta, served in the Marine Corps as a Marine Musician and Small Ensemble Leader from 1995 to 2018. His 23-year career enabled him to see much of the world, including 10 different duty stations, an assignment to Okinawa, Japan, and two deployments to Iraq.

It was while on a recruiting visit to UofL with the U.S. Marine Corps Jazz Orchestra that Knuckles to decide to enroll at UofL’s School of Music after his career in the Marine Corps ended. He is now scheduled to graduate in May 2022.

Knuckles said the faculty and students at UofL have been wonderful to work with, and that UofL has given him an opportunity to decompress from active duty while focusing on what he loves to do.

Chris Fitzgerald, associate professor of Performance Studies, has been his “go-to” faculty member, and calls him a “mentor who has always been a perfect sounding board and friend throughout my experience here at UofL.”

After graduation, Knuckles intends to complete his Master’s in jazz performance in New York and then to go back to Georgia to teach at the college level. He said Fitzgerald’s teaching style and knowledge is what he aspires to emulate when he is a professor. 

The University of Louisville recognizes Knuckles’ service and the 246^th birthday of the United States Marine Corps on Nov. 10.