Fire Line
Fire Line shares real, unfiltered conversations with service members, veterans, first responders, and the families who walk beside them. As a former Navy corpsman, I recognize the tone, the humor, the honesty, and the weight behind these stories — the way we speak when we’re talking about the moments that shaped us. This podcast preserves those voices exactly as they are: human, imperfect, courageous, and deeply true. Each episode honors a life, a legacy, and the reality of what it means to serve.
Fire Line
Episode 2 - Trevor: The Weight of Two Uniforms
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In this episode, Trevor shares the story of a life shaped by service in both the Marine Corps and the Army. With quiet honesty, he reflects on the discipline, the transitions, the brotherhood, and the moments that stayed with him long after he came home. His voice is calm and deliberate, offering a rare look into the experiences that shape a person across two branches and many years. This conversation honors the parts of his journey that can be spoken aloud — and respects the parts that can’t.
Welcome to Fireline, a place where the stories of service are honored with dignity, truth, and the quiet strength they deserve. Here we sit with the people who have lived it the soldiers, medics, firefighters, police officers, and families who carry the weight of service in ways most never see. These are their stories, their memories, their lived experiences. This is Fireline. So becoming a Marine, what drew you to the Marine Corps?
SPEAKER_00Um, well, long story short, I decided to join the Marine Corps. Pretty much is not a dumb decision, but a spontaneous one. I was going through a rough patch in high school, like most of us teenage boys do. And uh one of my teachers, he was like, you know, the next big thing that walks through the door in your life, take it. Well, 10 seconds right after you said that, a marine recruiter walked through the door and it was not intended. And I was like, hey teacher, I'll be right back. And I went out to the Marine Recruiter and I told him, Hey, I'd like to be a Marine. Without any like push pull or anything like that, I just kind of like shook hands on it.
SPEAKER_02Cool. I told Cody when he said you came from the army or from the Marines down to the army, I said, You know, he took a step down. It was like an insult to a Marine. He says, No, he finally realized he made a mistake.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02See. So early influences, motivations, defining moments.
SPEAKER_00Uh motivation. I going into it, I was uh a bit of a troublemaker in high school. And pretty much like the black sheep of my family, everyone from grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, all that, they would uh pretty much tell me I was gonna end up in prison for the rest of my life or dead in a ditch somewhere. So that was kind of my my line in to get it done.
SPEAKER_02Any influences in the Marine even in the Marine Corps? Anybody that motivated you, pushed you along?
SPEAKER_00I stepdad, he he was in the Marines back in the 90s, and he kind of like pushed the envelope of it sucked right now, but in 10 years you'll be laughing about it, saying, Man, I'm a little shit. I miss everything about it. So they kind of like always kind of inspired me to just kind of keep pushing, even though it sucked right now, like it'll be something worth missing and remembering later.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay. What about your identity and the pride of becoming a Marine? I mean, you guys have one of the hardest and the longest, absolutely the longest boot camp. And probably the hardest, too.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna say, like, the identity portion starting while I was just a poolie, which was like the indoctrinate process. When I was meeting with the recruiter once a week, working out with him, learning, memorizing, like kind of just like starting to learn the morals and the code of being a Marine, and that's when it kind of all started, when you started kind of like feeling a change. Going to boot camp, it was like an entirely different monster, and like the drone structure is breaking you down, rebuilding you, taking the civilian out of you, taking away your individuality, getting it like going through the crucible, going through like the baptism of fire, pretty much, of going in a little boy, and then coming out, like actually knowing that you're angry, actually knowing emotion, knowing drive, knowing that you're looking after the guys to the left and right of you. That was really when that's when the identity actually happened. When it wasn't I'm gonna be a marine, like to I'm a marine. I'm like, I am the poster boy, whether I'm not wearing the uniform or wearing the uniform, that everything you did from going to the to a uh gas station to just staying home or training or deploying, like it was every day you were that, like, and nothing could happen to take it away because you made it that far.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay. Well, I think we already covered the transformation from civil m civilian to marine. We just covered that. You pretty much covered that one. So without mentioning the job, why'd you choose that?
SPEAKER_00I scored pretty high on my ads up, and from my recruiter to commanders, they were like, why choose infantry? Why choose just like a low-level job when you could be doing a million other things that would move quicker, have like more money involved, everything like that. I chose my job because at the time in the from basically 9-11 through high school, like I wanted to feel like I did something, I would have like a legacy behind. I would have a story to tell. Yeah, I would be remembered as not just like, oh, like the plumber or the electrician, I would be the I would be the guy. I would be the guy kicking indoors, I'd be the the guy that I looked up to in my fantasies and my dreams growing up in high school, like the videos, the pictures, the guy kicking in the door, the guy getting the bad guy. That's where I kind of feel that I chose that job.
SPEAKER_02Okay. What was the discipline, the mindset, and the responsibility required to do that? I wouldn't have been able to do that just because, well, I have the attention span of an at, so uh the discipline was grown on me.
SPEAKER_00At first, like I was very all over the place, but I knew if I didn't do my job, then somebody would get hurt. So I I put that into like my lifeline. My basically the reason I got up in the morning, the reason why I went to work, the reason why I trained as hard as I did, the repetitiveness, the sleepless nights, the hunger, the thirst, was to make sure that the people around me and other units, not just the Marine Corps units, but the Army units, the Navy units, Air Force units, civilians, like they knew that they could entrust in me to have a well night's sleep. Yeah. Because of what I do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's where the discipline came from. The training, some good, some bad. Very, I suppose the there was days that were sleepless, horrible, tired, life-changing, stuff that I would never forget, and stuff that I use regularly, not just on mission, just as civilian. Very much stuff that I continue to use today. But then there's also other training where you know you're kind of like, Why did I ever need like this chemical compound that I will never see again? And I but it was there, and I had to learn it for some reason or another.
SPEAKER_02Now, this next one you might not want to answer, and that's fine, okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay, the emotional and psychological weight of that emotional and psychological weight of being a marine, the training. Being a marine psychologically is very difficult. It starts from before you go to boot camp and then during boot camp, your psychological mindset, it doesn't, it's not easy, but it's also I believe and talking to other Marines, having friends, having brothers in the core, we all came from a group and a place in childhood where it wasn't like sunshine and daisies. I want to say, like, majority of the Marines that I do know come from a very like troubled youth and a very dark past, a violent past, anger management issues, stuff like that, to where the Marine Corps says, like, you don't have to get rid of that. Let's just use it, let's make it grow to make you mentally, physically, emotionally, they see that you're angry, and then they reward you for your actions of your violence of action, per se, because that's like what they crave, that's what they desire, and that's what's repeated multiple times throughout training, throughout boot camp, that the violence of action, the more violent, the more action is gonna be the faster, the more like direct, and that's what complete submission, and that's kind of where it continues and it builds because you're no longer seeing as anger and violence as a problem, you see it as a necessity, and as we know as adults with children, that's not the case, like personally, I'm a girl dad, and violence of action and anger do not work with a daughter because they don't respond that way, most humans don't. So, and even now as a civilian and as a veteran, being angry and violent does not give me desired results, right? So the psychological aspect of it is not very good for a civilian, but it's exactly what is needed for combat, for the job, for the lifestyle of a Marine. That's that's definitely big. Yeah, the emotional side of it, at first it's scary to think that you were taught your whole life that anger is bad, violence is bad. And so at first it's scary, it's an emotional roller coaster at first, but boot camp kind of helps erase the emotions or suppress them, and allows you to just kind of be like, oh, alright, this'll be okay. I'll be okay here, I'll even be rewarded for being this way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But the emotional roller coaster leaving is when things get different. Like, you know, I was in the Marine Corps and then I switched over to the Army. The Marine Corps is an extremely aggressive culture, yeah. Where the army nothing against them, but they are they have a different job, they have a different task in the world and for the United States, where it was not that much violence, it was not that much anger, it was not that much just warrior mentality. And that took me some time to actually be like, okay, I can't use what I know, I have to actually reprogram my brain without having training. I actually did this all myself to do to change and transfer into a more peaceful mindset. I hope that kind of does helps out a little.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So without giving any kind of details, because I'm that's not about the war or the trauma, it's about you. What how did combat shape your understanding of service?
SPEAKER_00Combat. Combat was and this is from a Marine Corps mindset, was a dream come true. It was some say like walking on holy ground. Some say it was like a ball hall or a vac Valkyrie moment. Going and deploying as a marine was something that you dream about, you train for hours on end, you bleed for it, you sweat for it, you you only get chosen for combat because you made it that far. So when you go, it changes things. It allows you to actually expand the full violence, the full anger, the training. You actually see why you were trained the way you were, why you were brought up the way you were. You're gonna survive those moments. Combat is not all just like in the movies, gunslinging, and 90% of the time, or even 80% of the time, it's very boring. Cleaning guns, sweeping, playing cards, watching movies, standing guard, like it's not as like hyped up as it shows in Hollywood. And the other 10 to 20 percent, that's when you see the Hollywood stuff, and it gets exciting, and but for the 80 to 90 percent, it's pretty boring. And so, like, for me, when I first showed up, I was like, this is it. Like, I I feel like I could have done this on and home. I feel like at like for the first like first little bit of time, it almost feels like you see more action and training, and then when things do pick up and get exciting, that's when you realize that all the muscle memory, all the training, it did make a difference. And the separation of emotions and everything along that line, and the psychological preparation, that's what helped the transfer of being able to, once everything did stop, you were like, Okay, I'm okay, everybody left and right of me is okay, and now we're gonna go and sit down again and relax again and clean trucks and clean guns, but it's very different, and that's when you I feel like the slow moments are when you start overthinking it, and thinking, like, did I do the right thing? Was I sure? Am I a hundred percent positive I did the right thing? Could I have done something different? That's when things start your mind starts going into those dark hormies. Like the regret of it is when that starts happening. But during the moment, like you don't think that way. You think about the guys that are immediately there, your family doesn't matter, things going on at home don't matter. Like the snowstorms, like back home don't matter. What is going on right there in that moment is exactly what needs to happen in that moment, and the guys to left or right of you is the only thing that absolutely matters, right? That's kind of how combat changed, like changed everything for me. Is it's the preparation for future and savings and all that stuff goes out the window when things get scary, and so it kind of makes you just change, like, oh, I need to pay my car payment this week, or hey, rent's due next month. You you don't think that anymore. You kind of go, Okay, like I know right now it's all could be over. So it gives you kind of more of a an appreciation for life, if you want to say, and living in the absolute moment, not just taking for granted the small walk, the breath of fresh air, the sunshine, because that can that that all can go away, and you know, uh that's kind of where my mind went. Like after I sat down and thought about it, is I was like, okay, like it's time to start actually like enjoying the lazy days, enjoying the cuddles, enjoying like just the sunshine, enjoying the extra chicken nugget in your like that's where that goes. But that's kind of what combat did for me.
SPEAKER_02So I got uh two more questions in this area, but I want to go back to something you said. Because as you know, as a Corman. I I I know this is a fact because I've seen it. But you said that you get scared. A lot of people think Marines they don't get scared of nothing, they're not scared of anything. Tell my listeners the truth about that.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So you're not entirely wrong, but. There if you're not scared, there's like something like way wrong with you. Deployment, training, didn't matter. It's scary. There's stuff in training that can hurt you way worse and leave you way not okay than anything that you could ever see in combat. Hopefully. If you're not scared, or you don't have like a little voice in the back of your head going, Are you sure you wanna do that? But I there's a lot of issues like that come with that. But yeah, a hundred percent. Like I was scared. Was I fearful of my life at times? Yeah, sure. But that's where courage comes in. Even though we have good bearing, we look good on our uniform, we kick indoors, we get the bad guy, we have that aggression, that violence. Yeah, that you have to be scared. Because if you ain't scared, even if it's not for yourself, you're scared for the guy that left the right of you. Did we do that extra pull up? Did we run that extra mile to get to this point to where we could be strong enough to make it out of here? Will I have to carry you? Did I work out enough? Did I like move enough? Did I learn enough like from the cormin to do the first aid? Did I practice enough from my shooting? And did I did I prep the grenade properly? Did I like there that's being scared? That's not fearful. There's absolutely like fear, but then they're scared. When you're scared, you can push through it. You have courage. Everyone does. You just have to be able to tap into it. I don't say I had fear of dying or anything like that. That was removed. So I didn't have fear, but yes, absolutely. I was scared. And most of the time it wasn't for myself, it was for the people left to right of me, like my brothers. But being scared in training and repetitive motion of constantly doing something, that that's where the scared goes away. Then it just becomes fun. And then when you do it in real life, you're a little less scared, but you have the muscle memory to just move through. But yeah, scared being scared, it ev everybody's scared. Everybody's scared of something. Yeah. But it's the courage that you use to get over being scared of something new, something exciting. That's what makes a difference. And call me sir, whatever you want. I believe the Marine Corps teaches it like the best way. It's through muscle memory and through actually kicking you off of that tower. And you actually realizing this isn't that bad. This isn't this isn't going to get any easier or any harder. It's just has to happen. But yes, being scared, everybody's scared. It's just where you do it that scared. And just put your boots on and just kick it in the ass and move forward.
SPEAKER_02But so what's the emotional risk reality of carrying responsibility for your brothers, for others?
SPEAKER_00The emotional responsibility. Stand up, talk, choke it down when you're in public, praise in public, punish in private. And so taking care of others and being responsible and having that emotional attack of hey, you might have to fold a flag for him or her. Like you do it professionally, you do it respectfully, and you take care of your emotions with yourself or with people that you completely trust. But in the public view, there is no emotion. You're there to be supportive and carry the team.
SPEAKER_02The bonds that's formed under the pressure. I mean, brain core, all of Marine Corps, they're your brothers. They just are. But the ones you serve with in that moment are the bonds stronger?
SPEAKER_00The bonds are much stronger in the moment. The bonds grow even stronger with pain. I think like the best like best way to describe it is a piece of coal gets 5,000 to 10,000 years of pressure constantly to become a diamond. And that's just coal. Like coal can be used for fire and a bunch of other things. Once it comes together and it's hold tight, it's beautiful and valuable. And so I feel like the bond is kind of like that. Like I've gotten in fist fights with my brothers, I've gotten in arguments, like, and we've gotten in falling dragging out brawls together. But I know for a fact, and it's happened, that if like me and him fight, that's okay. But if somebody else fights them, somebody else picks on him, uh, they got hell to pay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Ain't nobody picking on my little brother, except for me, kind of idea. And that that's the bonds that like guys that I went through cold weather training with, the guys that I went on department with, the guys I went through boot camp with. I think those bonds are even tighter because you went through those horrible cold nights, those unbearable smoke sessions, those days that you were hungry, tired, feeling weak, and you picked each other up and moved forward with it. Yeah, like those bonds, like they they grow absolutely tighter when you go through them together. But like you said, like the Marine Corps is like a complete brotherhood. I can I can go and vice versa to any Marine, shake their hand. We have similar stories, so that automatically gives us something in common. Might not know each other from Adam, but like we absolutely can go, hey, I got your back, regardless of your job, regardless of what year, and you know, I know for a fact that they will come if I call, and I will do the same for them.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna ask you. Let me say. Oh, my mind went blank. So what lessons have you carried forward from your time in the Marines?
SPEAKER_00The resilience. The resilience, you're like just today sucks. Tomorrow might be better, where it might suck even worse. But as long as I wake up, go to work, come home with all ten fingers, ten toes, guess what is I'm fucking making something happen, uh whether it's a paycheck or just simply breathing. So let's say like the resiliency. But like I wouldn't say that too much because I believe that being in the military obviously gives you a little step up on being able to take a group of people and move with them. So I wouldn't say it's like a big outstanding thing that I carried on with me, but my adaptability as a leader is something I've definitely taken with me to move forward as a civilian. As you know, I'm here in El Paso, and at first my Spanish was shit, and like the culture was completely different for me. The work ethics were completely different, and now I've actually been able to learn Spanish a little bit better, been able to grow in the culture, been able to know like the ethics and like kind of the rules of the culture out here, and so now I'm able to communicate, I'm able to like actually know how far is too far, how hard is too hard. Actually being able to do that and adapt into this culture and any culture, really. I've worked all over and done a bunch of different types of lines of work. And I've always been able to adapt into multiple lifestyles like that and learn like how to get along and how to make things work.
SPEAKER_02So I gotta has nothing to do with this. Are you one of them Hollywood Marines or are you one of them Paris Island Marines?
SPEAKER_00I'm a Hollywood Marine. I was I I went to MCRD San Diego on T.
SPEAKER_02Do you get teased about it in with your Yeah?
SPEAKER_00There there's a few Marines out here that are like, oh, here comes a Hollywood plan. All right.
SPEAKER_02So transitioning out of the Marines, what was it like to leave?
SPEAKER_00Leaving the Marines probably about one of the most scariest moments that I've absolutely had to endure. Like there is transition programs and like classes that you have to go through when you leave any branch of the military. Are they good? I I would say no. I think that they need to be developed around the jobs that the military pe people use. And I'm not just talking from the Marine Corps, I'm talking like as a whole because we all leave the military with different skills. Um like my job skill in the Marine Corps was not something that really transferred too much out into the real world.
SPEAKER_02Not legally.
SPEAKER_00Where you dogged like you had medical background, so you can transition a little bit better to the civilian side, like with having a little bit of medical stuff. My job did not transfer too well. But they have it as this program, it's very basic and it doesn't really help for the guys that don't have transfer ability or skill sets to transfer. And so that right there was the scary part, is because I was like, do I go to school? Do I just go back to work? Do I just ignore everything, right? And just jump right headfirst into it and then just run a gung-ho. That's what I did when I first got out of the Marine Corps, which wasn't a bad thing. I I I believe that I landed kind of on my feet. I didn't last too long as a civilian when I first got out of the Marine Corps. As we all know, I jumped straight into the army because I I just didn't I didn't know what I was really getting into. And it really wasn't by choice when I got out of the Marine Corps, non-political or anything like that. It was just my number was called and they said, Hey, you got 30 days. Good luck.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00So I I kinda was like, I didn't even really have my boots off until like when I first got out. I hadn't started to relax or even transition my mind or have a plan. I do and I'm very thankful for BA organizations and stuff like that do help and veteran-owned companies or companies that do help veterans that are first transitioning and they allow them to get a job and stuff like that. That's kind of how I first got in. And so I got into the army like right away. I only I didn't last very long. I think I was I think I was out of the Marine Corps for maybe a total of ten days, maybe less.
SPEAKER_02So you didn't really have time. That was gonna be my next few questions, the identity shift, since but you weren't out long enough to really have that identity shift.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's that's the part that kind of scared me, is it because I I was still in good shape. I still I was still waking up at four o'clock in the morning to go on five mile runs when I first got back to Tucson, Arizona to my parents' house, driving them crazy because I would be up ready to go and had breakfast on the table by even the time they got up to first.
SPEAKER_02So what's the cultural difference between the Marines and the Army?
SPEAKER_00Cultural difference. Um this is I would say the camaraderie is the biggest change. And when I'm saying camaraderie, it's not necessarily brother to brother or sister to sister or anything like that. I'm talking as a whole. Um that was probably one of the biggest changes for me is that in the Marine Corps I wasn't just a number, I was an actual individual with an actual built. I I was I was a perfect piece to that puzzle.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Where the army was not like that. The army was I was a number, I was just another pawn being moved on a board, and as soon as that pawn needed to be replaced, it would be replaced. And that's like kind of the way it felt. It was like the Marine Corps was always like proud of being the few, the proud of the Marines, because there was so few of us, and there is that we were not just an individual number. Where the army it has so many more individuals and people that any person can be replaced and swapped out with something new or something, someone new, and that was one of the bigger things that I noticed culturally, and I would say like second, like I would say that the better gear, the better equipment in the army was great. They had a more budget. Once again, that's like very political, but as a guy that had hands-on the stuff and the equipment and the training, like in the Marine Corps was very like, here's a stick, here's a rock, to where the army is like new guns, new ammunition, like actually having the budget to train people, that was huge for me culturally, and it was nice, it was amazing to actually have those like wow, this would have been amazing, this would have changed everything in the Marine Corps for me. And that was nice, and I'm not saying like every group or team, platoon company run that way in the army. It's just something that I've seen overall in my time of spending time making friends, making family with army guys, and then having my family and brothers like in the Marine Court. That's something that I've noticed, like it's kind of all the way across the board on that, is that it's it's very you're just a number.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Marine Corps was you were an individual, and we need you to be okay. We need you to be strong, we need you to keep up because if you don't, like what are we gonna do? Where the army was like, hey, if you can't make it, we'll just grab somebody else. And that that that was different. Culturally, also with like an emotional and psychological, like the Marine Corps was such a violent, like a more violent culture. Where there's like a a joke that we kind of had in the Marines, is like we kind of had our own religion where it was like like we looked up to and idolized our Medal of Honor recipients, you know, Dan Daly, Smedley Butler, Chesty Poehler, guys that rearranged and developed the culture of like the Marine Corps and being violent. And so that was like we we kind of had that mentality of like this is it, like we are the most violent, we are the most scary, we are the most angry, we are the most aggressive branch. So where when I got into the army, like the army has its heroes and their medal of honor guys that changed a lot in this world, but because of because of how it's ran and how the organization was, it felt like it was more of like, hey, come here, let's have a talk. We don't use our hands, we don't put hands on people, like come here, let's talk about this. Let's there was like another way, and it's not necessarily bad, like not everybody can get into that culture of violence and aggression.
SPEAKER_02I always say it takes a special person to be a marine. Not everybody can be, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00And like where the army felt like the people that I worked with and the people that I watched come in and out of the army, it was very like, how did you get here? Okay, why are you here? Where it was like in the Marine Corps. I never once heard somebody tell me in the Marine Corps, like, okay, why'd you join? Oh, I joined to go to college. Like, once I'm done, it's my floor, I'll leave. I never heard that. Where the army, that's a very common phrase, like, oh, I'm here to pay off my debt and go to college. Like, what? Like Marine Corps, I got lost. I I didn't even know what a college was, you know? I just wanted violence. And so it was very different for me. Like, actually listening to people like kind of go, like, well, I really didn't know what I wanted to do, and I figured I would just come into the army, serve my country, go to college afterwards, maybe do something after that. And I was like, what? Like, this is blowing my mind. Like, most Marines, at least in my time, it was like there was a a purpose. There was like they had a reason that was entwined with going to the Marine Corps. It wasn't college, it was service, it was being absolutely, they just wanted to travel, they wanted to go and kick in a door, they wanted to be able to release all that rage that they had pent up. So it was very different, very different in the both branches.
SPEAKER_02So has the culture of the Marine Corps, like the kids coming in today from when you came in, has it changed? Is the Marine Corps button softer?
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. But I feel like if we were to call my dad and we talked to him about if he thought my culture was soft versus my uncle Steve that went into the Marine Corps Dragon like Vietnam, like he would probably my Uncle Steve told us all the time that we're a bunch of pansies to stuff. So I believe truly that one of the better things about the military as a whole is that we adapt to the generations. Do I feel like it got so Softer for sure. But I believe that's only because the rules got tightened more. I believe that they started getting rid of the idea, the ideas and like the bad habits. I guess some people would call it like the hazing, the initiation. Where during my time, it was kind of you felt proud to get initiated because it meant you were part of the group. Probably the same thing for my dad. Same for my uncle Steve. Where it was like those moments we looked at him and we're like, you know what? This is why I'm here. It's because I want this. I approve of going through the crucible. I approve of going without sleep. I approve of, you know, combatives and putting hands on each other and getting roughed up and drinking and stuff like that. To where now I feel like it just adapted to the time. It's not that they're any less aggressive or any less violent from my time or anybody else's time before us. I believe that they're still aggressive. I believe that they're still have the culture there. They still have the belief system. It's just adapted to the time. And so do I believe that it's harder to get in now? Probably not to where when I was in, but it was probably easier for me to get in than it was my my stepdad or my uncle Steve. So I believe that those that that question, it's different because I couldn't see me going through Marine Corps boot camp again. Could I make it mentally? Yes, sure. Because I've already been there, I've already done the mental process. Physically, it would be something very difficult to run against 18, 19-year-olds.
SPEAKER_02So, how did your Marine Corps identity implance your army experience?
SPEAKER_00That that was definitely interesting for me. I I would say that it helped me in like training people because like I had already been there, I had already done it, I had already had the training. I already I was teaching 18, 19-year-old kids how to apply a tourniquet, where they never had to do it in real life combat. But I also, when I first learned how to put on a tourniquet, I didn't have to do that either. But I also knew steps that happened in real life that I could teach them. Shooting techniques, how to prepare yourself mentally, how to like how to judge distance, stuff like that. Those processes helped me in the army training army guys that later on they went out and it saved their lives and others' lives. That I was able to take like the aggression and the violence, and I told them I was like, look, like this isn't gonna be like just driving down in a bad neighborhood. Like, this is the the whole world is against you when you're there. And like my mentality, they later on like came and told me like that my training of them and the unorthodox programs that I was showing them actually was the reason why they were able to make it out. Later on, like they're still in, like the guys that I did train that ended up to play. And later on, they they did get medals and stuff like that, and they went on and trained others the same way I trained them. So I would say that my my respect for the violence of action, the aggressiveness of the Marine Corps did make a huge difference going into the army to make sure people got home alive. And I treated all of any anybody, any soldier that was in my care or in my team, like I treated him as an individual because I believed that was one of the more important things that I had in the Marine Corps of small like small unit leadership is I knew everything about my guys, their personal life, their private lives. Man, I kind of I kept most of it all to myself, and I would only talk to them to make sure that you know they're doing good, their family's doing good, their kids, their wife. And that made a lot of difference because I would talk to other teams and other team leaders, and they're like, no, I only deal with some when I'm here at work. What? That would that was crazy to me. With the Marine Corps, it was like, I was never without another Marine with me. Hey, I'm going to Walmart, you want to go? Yeah, come by, pick me up. All right, sounds good. What are we gonna do? I'm just come to get groceries, man. I didn't want to go alone. That was very common. We're like, hey, we're having a barbecue. Okay, who's gonna be there? The whole platoon. That was so common to show up and have officers, sergeants, everyone would be invited. Kids, wife, and that was that was the beautiful part about it is that everybody, like whether we were training in in boot camp, whether we were, you know, overseas, like, we all stayed connected. And then at that same time, that like those relationships that we had between each other as brothers, it worked out for us because the wives, our kids, when we were gone, they all hung out together because they all made friends with each other. So we started a whole community, and that was like necessary, and that happened all over in the Marine Corps. And I and I hope that today that's still happening, right? That that brotherhood is still shared that way, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So did you have to re-prove yourself in in in in the second branch in the army? Well, I mean, because you came out of Marine, Marines, that was just that, but did you have to prove yourself in the army? Or would your Marine Corps experience carry that over?
SPEAKER_00Marine Corps carried that over. I never had to go back to a boot camp. I never had to go back through like any secondary trading or anything like that. I basically left the Marine Corps and kind of just walked right into here and was expected to, you know, kick ass and take names, which luckily I did. And I kind of I I believe that it just it was good, but at the same time, it was bad at the same. The good was not having to go back to boot camp and actually doing like the physical portion of the training. The bad part of it is I was way behind the learning curve of knowledge from the army. So the days that I was like had free, it was most of the time I was like studying and training of just the knowledge portions that most of the army was learning before boot camp or during boot camp. And so I was like having to like basically rapidly cram army knowledge so that I could understand how they were talking. You know, like I was having to learn their language. Um where like the Marine Corps, I that that's the only language I knew, and that the culture, the ethos, the roles, where the army had they had their own, and and I had to learn it real quick, because you can't just you know, yeah, I I couldn't just get dropped off in China and be expected to know the culture and everything like that, and that's kind of the way it was for me. So I had its good and its bad, and I was like I said, I I carried my adaptability over to everything that I do, and luckily army was one of those things that I was able to more or less adapt into and make things happen.
SPEAKER_02So what does it mean to you to have served in two branches?
SPEAKER_00Um, cockiness, because I left the Marine Corps as an NCO and I left the Army as an NCO. So I in my head uh within my family, I'm like, okay, cool. You guys left as NCOs at a one branch, I left out of two.
SPEAKER_02Like did you lose rank when you went, changed service?
SPEAKER_00So I left the Marine Corps. When I got out of Marine Corps, I was a sergeant. And so I would drop down to corporal, going E4, going into the Army, and as a whole nother debacle, I didn't know the rank structure of the army. So when they told me I was a specialist, I thought they were calling me special ed. And it didn't end up very well. But later on, I ended up getting laterally promoted to corporal, and that's where I stayed in the army. So I did and I didn't lose rank. So I I did actually pretty well.
SPEAKER_02So what strength did you carry from one into the other?
SPEAKER_00Um strength, my adaptability, most of my training, physical training, I was very much what I noticed, I was very much more physically built for combat, where I feel like the army wasn't really physically built for combat. They were more just physically built. So like I was able to carry that over. My training style, my aggressive, my aggressiveness, my violence of action, a lot of my my mindset of learning, leading. That that's a lot of the stuff that I took over to the army. I would say that was like the main ones.
SPEAKER_02So tell me about the pride and the weight of dual service identity.
SPEAKER_00The pride. The pride's very nice. The pride of being a Marine, it's like pretty much unmatched for anything that I I'll probably ever accomplish. But the pride of knowing that I made it through two branches and being dual branched would be very high. It's something definitely to be proud of. So I I I take it pretty big.
SPEAKER_02Last question. What do you hope others understand about Marines, soldiers, and the people who serve twice?
SPEAKER_00It's not just a job. I would like a lot of people to understand that. And it's not just me coming from being a combat veteran, but it's just me serving. It's not their job. This is something that changes your life. For better or worse, it's something that you go through and it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's something to grow with. And even if it's only you're only able to use one strength or tool that you learn from any branch that you serve in, that's something that you can't. And so I would say that if I wanted the world to know about service and being dual service or even just single service in your community or your country is, it would be that. Like just this wasn't a job. This was a choice to volunteer to serve your community, serve your country, to protect it and the values of your country, the constitution, the support, and defend if need be. And that's really it. It's not a job, it's literally a commitment for a lifetime to protect and serve your community.
SPEAKER_02Is there one thing you would like to tell everybody or wish they would know, make them understand about a Marine? No other service, just a Marine. Because they're different, they're special, they're you know, they're human.
SPEAKER_00They have feelings, they might look like a robot put together, strong, fearless, not scared, aggressive, violent. But they are human, and they absolutely can and will love and be your friend and be kind, but at the same time, they can also be like your worst enemy. But they are human, they do have emotions, they do have feelings, and I would say, yeah, like that would be it, is it's people in the world needed to know what a marine was, like they're not just war junkies, they're not just violent, brainwashed individuals, like they are actually humans in there in that head, no matter how they look, how angry they are, how violent they are, like they are human, they are feeling something, they are thinking something. So I would say that.
SPEAKER_03Thank you for spending time with us. If this story resonated with you, share it with someone who understands the quiet cost of service. And remember, service is a lineage. A legacy and a thread that connects us more than we realize. Until next time, stay safe, stay human, and keep the stories alive.