I grew up in a rural area, during the summer I spent every weekend working in my parent's garden or in the fields on the farm and in the winter we cut wood to heat our house. Hard work was something I was brought up with.
When I graduated High School I decided I was going to go right to college, but each year I was there, I became less sure of what I wanted to do with my life and more ready for a change. I decided to join the Marine Corps. If you want to be a Marine you can't go into it thinking it might be something you want to do in the future, you have to jump into it. Two feet in, full force ahead. This is not a job, it's a vocation, it's a career, it's much more than anything else I've ever done.
I'm an 1803 (MOS) Amphibious Assault Officer. Essentially I'm in charge of the Marines who take the AAV from the ship to the shore and provide machine gun support to the infantry inland and wherever else they want to go. We can move anywhere inland into hostile territory where people may be shooting at you and travel up to 300 miles on a tank of gas. We have three Marines who are driving the vehicle and then about 20 infantrymen that you are supporting. You're in a hot sweaty environment for up to eight hours a day with all sorts of protective gear on, After that you'll come back to do about 2 hours of maintenance work to make sure your vehicle is ready for the next day. Then sleep for the night, get briefed and start all over again.
Leadership is what officers do at any rank, any MOS, any grade. To keep the Marines around you calm and involved in what you're doing, the number one thing to do is lead by example. You're thinking about the 45 other Marines that are dependent on you. You're outward focused, focused on what the Marines need from you and you're much more calm than you'd think. You are asked to make decisions all the time in situations that are not comfortable. When it's hot, when you're tired, when somebody's shooting at you. That builds leaders and the ability to make decisions.
Training your Marines to work together as a team is the most important thing we do, often starting at OCS to get the team together so they can act as one. So you know the guy next to you has your back or your front, because if you're not working as a team and have that 360 degree environment covered, then somebody may lose their life. But the most rewarding thing is as an officer, you can take a group of young, raw men and women and forge them into a team and train them to accomplish anything that is ever asked of them.
I hope I can share my experiences here and contribute to this team and help it accomplish its goals.
