My Deployment Team At The Marine Corps

The couple of months prior to leaving for boot camp, I was really motivated like most people. My brother had given me a lot of guidance on what boot camp was going to be like. Honestly when I got there, I wasn’t scared. I knew exactly what to do. Two days later I was sent to the hospital because my appendix was about to rupture and had to go into surgery immediately. I was at Paris Island an extra month. When I graduated, I loved being a Marine. Because I felt like I had already made a difference already. MCT, was similar, but I slowly started losing motivation. I was a dumb ass and wore my contacts and 3 days before I graduated I got dropped for pink eye in both eyes. Yes it was my fault and I sucked it up, but another month on Camp Geiger didn’t help. But still I was proud of being a Marine. MOS school went well. I was finally happy to be doing my job and being trained in my MOS. When I found out I was going to Cherry Point, I was furious. It kind of killed everything I had worked for, knowing I was going to the biggest POG base in the Marine Corps. After making fun of me for a while, my brother helped me out and got me back on

I was once the big fish in a small pond, but now I find myself as a worm on a hook in an ocean of big fish. Starting this journey, I can say that I was overcome with all types of emotions all at once: anxiety, fear, excitement, inadequateness, and at the end of it all I was finally calm. Knowing that I had just accomplished something that not even six months ago wasn’t even in my life plans. As a platoon, we performed feats that as individuals or a group you would never attempt let alone think about have accomplished. The slogans during that time of my career were “be all you can be in the Army” or “we do more before 9 am than most people do all day.” Within my first four years I got to travel the world and see places that most people would only dream about from Antarctica to Panama, and even to the pyramids in Egypt, I got to see it all. The military had such a powerful and profound hold on me I couldn’t think of anywhere else I would rather be. I was once told by my 1SG after a very long and trying day he said “Private Williams, where else can grown men and women have this much fun and still get paid. “I thought and pondered on what he had said, and even today 26 years later I still ask myself the same question, and it always goes back to the same answer, wearing the uniform serving my country side by side with my brothers and sisters in

The Marine Corps Experience, pp. 12 – 31 The Corps today, pp 318 – 335

To be early, is to be on time, to be on time, is to be late, and to be late, is out of the question. Being able to adhere to a given deadline in a group situation, demonstrates responsibility, time management, group cohesion, and progress. However, being that a group is a collection of individuals with separate lives, there are times when members of the group may be experiencing extenuating circumstances preventing the group from completing a task on time. In such a scenario, communication within the chain of command is essential. Failing to communicate problems that may arise, and inhibit group progression towards a task will result in failure to communicate the task, group division, distrust between the chain of command and the group,

The U.S. Marine Corps’ is thought to be one of the five free standing military departments, but in all actuality there is only three departments. The U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy are the only branches of the military that are correctly recognized as their own departments. There are two other Branches of the military that are under the U.S. Navy, one is the United States Marine Corps’. They were created to protect, but now they need protecting from budget cuts and disbanding. In order to protect the Corps’, they need to become their own U.S. Department, with their own funding and supplies.

I attend a military school and i have been a part of many leadership roles at Fork union Military Academy. One of my unique experiences was when we were drilling my company to prepare for a parade. I am a day student which places us in our own platoon. In my day student platoon there were no cadets with rank at the time which means we had no particular leader. This was the perfect opportunity for me to take charge and become the temporary leader for the drill. I had no real experience with drilling besides the steps i have learned while being at FUMA for 2 years at that time. . I drilled the cadets in front of the 120 cadets in my company. I did particularly well besides one mistake on a facing movement. Taking this leadership role earned me

Faced with an unfamiliar problem, Coach P, of the West Point Crew team, had a JV boat that was consistently outperforming the Varsity team on different measures. Upon preliminary analysis, it appears that the problem is simple: the selection of the varsity team was flawed and many of the athletes were misjudged and subsequently misplaced. However, the coach analyzed this possible flaw through seat races and even decided to demote varsity rowers to the JV team and JV rowers to the varsity team; the unlikely outcome was that the JV boat would win by even more, meaning that the demoted rower actually made the JV boat faster. This unlikely outcome revealed a deeper flaw within the Varsity team’s attitudes and motivations that sharply contrasted with those of the Junior Varsity team.

“This We’ll Defend” (U.S. Army Moto) are the words that encapsulate the ideals of the United States Army. Each word is meaningful. "This" refers to the United States, the U. S. Constitution and liberty. "We 'll" references the army 's collective team efforts, and "defend" refers to the primary function of the army as a defender of the nation, not an aggressor against others. () It was first used by the War Office of the Continental Congress during the American Revolutionary War in 1778, and it has been the Army’s guiding moto for over 200 years.

From my personal experience while deployed to Afghanistan from 2011-2012 I can say it is very rough to put it simply, the thought of leaving your post and wanting to get away from it all is a regular occurrence, but when you are in that tower or driving on a convoy or whatever it is that you are doing and you look out into the nothingness it hits you very quickly and you realize the radical impracticality of it all, you understand through your training that there is literally no way that you would be able to accomplish getting away from whatever you wish you could.

In July of 2003, 1st Battalion, 62nd Air Defense Artillery was notified to prepare for a twelve month rotation to Afghanistan (Armstrong et al., 2003). The intent was to send two brigade combat teams to rotate after six months in Afghanistan. In typical “Need to Know” fashion, 1-62 ADA was notified that they will be sent to Iraq early August (Armstrong et al., 2003). This is the first time the entire division deployed since the Vietnam War. Battalion staff began planning for several operational deployments for two different theaters. 1-62 ADA Soldiers were engaged in the Global War on Terror, combating Taliban rebel fighters in Afghanistan, and battling insurgents in Iraq (Armstrong et al.,

I thought completing Marine Corps boot camp was my most cherished accomplishment, completing boot camp merely stood in the shadows of my last work up for my last deployment. I was holding the Bravo Squad Leader position. At this point in my Marine Corps career I obtained three combat oriented M.O.S.’ or jobs; however, there was little to no preparation for what I got myself into.

USARECs tactical organizations recruiting centers are responsible for prospecting and recruiting professional individuals that will volunteer for a job serving as a Soldier. Their main effort involves identifying and creating the Soldier of 2025 that will fight to win any complex operating environment. Daily NCOs engage local communities to find individuals to enlist despite the changing United States (US) society where 7 out of 10 prospects do not qualify to enlist into the Army. NCOs at this tactical level have a tremendous challenge in their day-to-day operations. They have to accomplish daily operations by overcoming many factors and challenges. These challenges include economic conditions, persistent and unstable Middle East, China,

When I received my orders to be stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii with 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division I was beyond excited. One, it was in Hawaii, but also, it was because I would have the opportunity to further my interaction with the people and

After returning to the States for 10 months, I was placed on orders to deploy to Iraq. I served our great country in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. My first deployment was to Victory Base Camp Iraq that was from November 01, 2004 to November 15, 2005. My second deployment was to Camp Adder Iraq that was from January 23, 2009 to January 19, 2010. My first deployment was the hardest. It was during a major turning point of Operation Iraqi Freedom. My duties as a 25L (cable installer systems maintainer) to were to install communications equipment and help facilitate the arrival of the Iraqi Army Headquarters at Victory Base Camp. The first deployment in 2004 was the roughest. I had seen a lot of mortar attacks, and lost a couple of close friends.

I joined the Marine Corps looking for a challenge. I wanted to open doors for a new career and longed to have a positive impact on the world around me. Looking back five years later, I realize I found all that I originally sought, but I’ve also found something profoundly satisfying and meaningful that I never knew I was missing.