‘BadA** Marine’ identified
Call off the manhunt. The leatherneck whose patriotic spoken-word performance in a YouTube video called “BadAss Marine” that has received well over 400,000 hits has been found.
http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2007/08/marine_video_marine_070816/
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Aug 22, 2007
Staff Sgt. Lawrence Dean II, an instructor with the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., has been identified as the poetic Marine.
A national search began this week after Fox News and multiple blogs posted Internet stories pleading with the mystery man to step out of anonymity.
Dean, who spoke to Marine Corps Times on Thursday, said the video clip was filmed a year ago on a cell phone after one of his students asked him for help explaining to his family why he was joining the Corps and risking being sent off to war. In the midst of the student’s final room inspection, he performed the spoken-word poem, which many mistakenly refer to as rap, he said.
Dean said he wrote the inspirational poem after his grandmother asked him whether he would go to war if called.
“The best thing I could come up with to explain it to her was [the poem] ‘She Called,’ ” he said.
The 3 1/2-minute poem starts slowly with the first verse, “She called. ”
Dean’s voice builds with intensity and emotion as he refers to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a calling and thanks the military’s men and women for looking past race, religion and political affiliation and fighting for Americans’ freedom.
“Thank you to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, for preserving my rights to live and die for this life and paying the ultimate price for me to be free!” he rhymes.
Commandant Gen. James Conway watched the video after his spokesman saw it and sent the link to him Wednesday morning.
“I was never a fan of rap until today,” Conway said after watching it, according to his spokesman, Lt. Col. T.V. Johnson.
Dean, whose stage name is Life, said he started performing his spoken-word poetry three or four years ago. He has a local following in the eastern North Carolina region, performing at local churches and clubs, along with events at Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point. He’s even performed at the House of Blues in New Orleans.
He used to perform under his given name until he was announced at a poetry club event as “Life” because almost all of his lyrical poetry revolves around his personal life experiences, he said.
“At first, I was looking around to see who was going to stand up, but then I realized they were talking about me and the name just kinda stuck,” said Dean, a KC-130 avionics technician who has spent 12 years in the Corps.
Dean said he found out about his newfound national celebrity when Gunnery Sgt. Anthony Wetherell, who works with him at Cherry Point, told him he was the lead story on Fox News’ Web site.
“I really couldn’t believe it because [the video] was recorded a year ago,” Dean said.
The history on who originally imported the video on YouTube’s Web site is also hazy, since the original poster, “studman20673,” has not responded to e-mails.
Then last October, Matthew Denton, who didn’t know Dean at the time, posted a link to the video on his personal YouTube site after his brother found it while searching for inspirational clips.
During the first year it was up, under the title “BadAss Marine,” it received “a few hundred clicks a week,” Denton said, but no one knows what spurred its recent popularity.
Cpl. Mike Griffith, who works with Dean at Cherry Point, said the spontaneous national following is long overdue. He said each time Dean performs, he leaves the stage to standing ovations.
“Life talks with such an aura, it moves you,” Griffith said. “You’re just hearing it and at the same time you are just like, ‘That’s so true.’ ”
As for Dean’s reaction to all the attention: “I’m just real proud of the situation. I think the Marines I work with are even more excited about all of it than me.”