Story of service

---

This is a short-detailed story of my service to our country. 

I  enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in June 2001 which was the  summer before my senior year of high school. I chose the Marine Corps  because I knew it was the hardest most disciplined and, in my eyes, the  best branch of service our country has to offer. At that time, we were  at peace but I didn’t care, if I was going in I wanted the hardest job  INFNATRY. And then 9/11, that day solidified me. I couldn’t get there  fast enough, so June 2002 I stood on the yellow footprints at MCRD San  Diego. Lucky for me I had a good recruiter and he prepared me for boot  camp, I graduated as the series guide and was promoted straight out of  boot. For the next several months I went to different schools, I was  selected from basic infantry to go be a Light Armored Vehicle crewman  which is part of the reconnaissance world. Before my school even ended  we were pushed to our unit to prep for deployment, I got 1st Light  Armored Reconnaissance at Camp Pendleton. By February 2003 I was in  Iraq, I was pretty fortunate to be in a vehicle that had some armor  moved fast and had a big freakin 25mm chain gun on it that would shoot  armor piercing or high explosive rounds. Our main objective was to go  forward of the main force and secure safe travel routes and to provide  over watch at security check points. We moved so fast that we were one  of the first American troops in Baghdad City, we even had Fox news  reporters with us. It felt like we did laps around the lower half of the  country going from one side to the next, I guess it was the benefit of  being so fast and having destructive power. Needless to say, I got a  once in a lifetime tour of a country that is so rich in history, I’ve  crossed the Tigirs and Euphrates rivers, I’ve toured the ancient  Babylon, seen the hanging gardens. I even got to spend the night in one  of Saddam’s castles where I waited to sit on his golden toilet basically  the highlight of my entire deployment. We came home in October of 2003  to a huge welcome and small parade, my unit was awarded several medals  including combat action for multiple combat engagements and a  Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism in action. 

After  the deployment I started to make rank I became a Corporal pretty fast  and went to Corporals course where you taught how to be a leader of  marines. That’s when Marine Corps life started to get a little 

easier,  I also went from the driver of my Light Armored Vehicle to gunner which  in my opinion was the best spot to be. There again I was off to another  course, gunners’ school, I was pretty lucky because the gunner that I  had before taught me everything that he knew. I could breakdown that  main gun and reassemble blindfolded. At the end of 2004 we began to get  ready for another deployment. This time it wasn’t to the Middle East but  to the Horn of Africa. Djibouti is right on the Gulf of Aden and  boarders Ethiopia and Somalia. We were sent there for “peace keeping and  security missions” and that’s exactly what we did. We kept the peace.