Marine Corps News Room

http://www.dundalkeagle.com/articles/2006/08/11/news/news02.txt

by Bill Gates

He could have gone to college. He could have gone to a lot of colleges. But, last month, Jones left for Parris Island, S.C., along with his buddy, Harry Lang, to begin Marine Corps boot camp.

It's only the grads with no real options who join the military, right?

“A lot of my friends told me I was an idiot,” Jones said before leaving for boot camp. “But this is my choice. A lot of people didn't think it was the right choice, but I didn't make the choice for anyone but myself.”

Making their choice

It's not unusual for students from Dundalk high schools to enter the military after graduation. But, with the increasingly unpopular and divisive military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan in their fourth year, and casualties steadily mounting, enlisting is no longer just a way to “learn a trade, earn money for college.”

For the first time since the Vietnam War era, enlistees know the chances are good they eventually will be in a combat zone. But, unlike then, there is no draft to face.

In addition to the ones interviewed for this story, the following people enlisted in the U.S. Marines this summer: Dundalk High grads Joe Bathgate, Chris Chavis, Jason Muir, Chris Coffman, Ron Waugh, Josh Dean and Justin Yuhase.

“My friends pretty much felt I was crazy,” said Jones's buddy Lang, who also just graduated from Dundalk High. “But they're supporting me. They know it's what I want to do.”

Brian Lawson, Dundalk High Class of 2005, enlisted in the Marines on March 25 and returned from boot camp two weeks ago for a brief visit before shipping out to Camp Lejeune to resume his training.

“Of course, with everything going on, going to war has to run through your mind,” Lawson said. “My family is a little bit nervous, especially with me being in the Marines, which are usually the first to fight. But my family has always supported me in every decision I've made.”

Sparrows Point High graduates Ryan Yeatman and Nick Swenson left for Parris Island last week. They'll be joining another member of the Pointer Class of 2006, Chris Kerntke, who shipped out in early July.

“That I might be sent to Iraq made me think about [enlisting] a little bit,” Yeatman said. “But people don't join the Marines to avoid a war; they join to serve their country. If I have to go to Iraq, I will. Marines are there for the guys next to them, looking out for each other.”

As they enlisted under the buddy system, one of those guys next to Yeatman could be Swenson.

“I've always wanted to be a Marine, and the possibility of going to Iraq doesn't affect me,” Swenson said. “Everyone has a job to do, and that will be my job. My friends tried to talk me out of it, but I want to get on with my life, and this is what I want to do: protect my country and serve.”

For Robert Preisendorfer, a 2002 Dundalk High grad who finished Marine boot camp in late July, the scary world situation and its implications for America and its soldiers was the clincher.

“It's what made me want to [join the Marines] even more,” Preisendorfer said on Monday, one day before shipping out for Marine combat training at Camp Lejeune. “It's a job you have to do.”

Family tradition of service to country

Yeatman's grandfather, William Yeatman, is a retired Marine and a Korean War veteran. Jones's father, Casey Sr., is a retired Marine, as is his uncle, Danny. Lang has a brother-in-law in the Marines.

Swenson's father, Harry, served in the Navy, while his uncle, Dean Coffman, is in the Air Force.

“My father kept asking me, ‘You sure you want to go into the Marines?,'” Swenson said. “When I get back, I'll probably call him a squid and he'll call me a jarhead.”

Preisendorfer's grandfather, Robert A. Preisendorfer, is a World War II Navy veteran, while his father, Charles Coburn, and his stepfather, Bill Howell Sr., both served in the U.S. Army.

Preisendorfer opted for the Marines over the Army because the Marines “are the best of the best,” he said.

A long road to enlist

Preisendorfer overcame two obstacles in his determination to be a Marine. He was out of shape. Then there was the 30-month probation he received for a crime (possession of an explosive device) he committed four summers ago.

Preisendorfer and three other male youths, who were all minors at the time, discovered that a certain combination of chemicals mixed in a plastic two-liter bottle would expand and explode when left in the heat.

The four tested their science project in a series of mailboxes along Robinwood, Longpoint and Stansbury roads on Aug. 7, 2002. They were arrested soon afterward and received probation.

“That hindered me a lot,” Preisendorfer said on Monday. “It kept me from talking to any branch of service for two and a half years.”

The probation took patience. Getting back in shape took work.

Preisendorfer finished boot camp in late July and left for Camp Lejeune on Tuesday to begin his Marine combat training.

He needed one more month than normal to complete boot camp, for the same reason he was free to join the Marines during the summer of 2005 but had to wait a year.

“I weighed 315 pounds [in 2005],” Preisendorfer said. “I had to get down to 263 pounds to enlist in the Delayed Entry Program, and had to get down to 249 pounds for boot camp.”

Preisendorfer, who now weighs 202 pounds, lost the required weight by “cutting out all fast foods and working out at Gold's Gym.”

He was still lacking in strength, however, and couldn't do one pull-up when he reached boot camp (two are required). That put him in the physical conditioning platoon until he was able to do two pull-ups and join a normal boot camp platoon.

Now, he said, he can complete from three to six pull-ups, “depending on the day.”

Preisendorfer, by the way, had his own deck-building business: Done Right On Time Construction. It's not like he didn't have any options, either.

Making a career of it

Jones has his eye on applying to the Naval Academy and becoming an officer. Lang, Preisendorfer and Yeatman have set Officer's Candidate School as a potential goal, while Lawson and Swenson are leaning toward going career, but will assess how they feel at the end of their four-year stint.

Jones is going into aviation ordnance, with becoming a pilot his eventual goal. Lawson is being trained as a tank crewman, while the other four men interviewed are going into the infantry.

“Infantry is the toughest,” Lang said. “At first, I was going to try avionics, be an electrician. But I thought about it and decided infantry would be more my thing.”

Jones, who described his duty as “basically, loading bomb racks onto planes,” said he will go to Virginia Tech under its ROTC program if he doesn't get admitted into the Naval Academy.

“The goal is to be an officer,” he said. “Ordnance is just something that was available at the time and close to what I want to do: fly.”

Lawson will be trained for every position of an M1A1 Abrams tank crew: driver, gunner and loader.

In harm's way

Of course, every Marine is trained as a rifleman. And a rifleman see combat.

Staff Sgt. Nathan Natchke, the U.S. Marine Corps recruiter for this area, doesn't shy away from telling recruits what they can expect in the future.

“I tell them they'll be going to Iraq,” Sgt. Natchke said. “We always talk about how bad things really are in Iraq. When you discuss things a little bit, you show them it's not as bad as they've seen. Yes, there's danger, but there's danger walking through Baltimore City.”

These young men are aware of the risk.

“Yes, we could die,” Lang said. “But, really, you could die anywhere. I'm doing something for a cause. I get butterflies, like I would before a football game. I'm not scared, but anxious to see what happens.”

Lawson said he really doesn't dwell on potential danger.

“Every Marine earns his paycheck,” Lawson said. “When you get [to Iraq], you really feel like you're doing something worthwhile.”

But they're all realistic.

“I'm not sure how I'll react in combat,” Yeatman said. “No one really knows until that first bullet flies by. I'll just do my job.”

Why they serve

In the 1992 movie A Few Good Men, the character played by Demi Moore is asked why she likes the Marines, even the one she is defending on a murder charge.

“Because they stand on a wall,” she replies. “And they say ‘Nothing's going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch.'”

Whether it's to be a pilot or a grunt, to find a career or just serve a short stint before getting back to civilian life, young people who enlist in the military understand it's something that someone has to do.

“There's duty and responsibility,” Preisendorfer said. “And there's seeing that my godmother, mom, brother and girlfriend can all go to the mall without something happening.”

“A lot of my friends really don't understand,” Yeatman said. “I tell them I'll keep them safe, so they can party in college. I have my freedom and my privileges in life, so I want to serve my country.”

For more photos from this article along with descriptions, and credits please click on any picture.