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    Rediscovering home, purpose – Sgt. Ceasar’s backyard search for America’s next 911 force

    Rediscovering home, purpose – Sgt. Ceasar’s backyard search for America’s next 911 force

    Photo By Chief Warrant Officer James Marchetti | Marine Corps Sgt. Niles Ceasar, a recruiter for Recruiting Substation Peekskill, N.Y.,...... read more read more

    PEEKSKILL, NY, UNITED STATES

    10.15.2015

    Story by Cpl. James Marchetti 

    1st Marine Corps District

    PEEKSKILL, N.Y. - “Back on the block” is a military idiom which, when used in conversation, references service members’ lives prior to joining their respective branch of service. It is primarily used as a preparatory statement before one recollects nostalgic memories of their days before service.

    Orange County, New York, is not Sgt. Niles Ceasar’s block, per say – but it isn’t far off. Currently settled only a couple hours south down the Hudson River from his hometown of Albany, and alma mater La Salle Institute, located in Troy, New York, Ceasar has served as a Marine Corps recruiter in Peekskill since 2013.

    Ceasar enlisted into the Corps in 2007 – a process, as he explained, that took only three days. His experiences in the Corps range from stateside duties in Beaufort, South Carolina, and Brooklyn, to tours of Iraq and Morocco.

    Having witnessed and served in both hemispheres for substantial amounts of time, Ceasar says recruiting in an environment reminiscent and close to his place of upbringing is the most rewarding duty he has held – one he intends to turn into a career.

    “I want to represent the change these kids desire in their lives,” Ceasar said. “The Marine Corps is more than a branch of service; it’s a culture, lifestyle – a mindset.”

    Many join the military for a sense of adventure, or, at the very least, an opportunity to depart one’s hometown. Despite rediscovering his home in upstate New York eight years subsequent to his departure, this was Ceasar’s reasoning – as he attests – to enlisting.

    “I was 20 and had gone to community college for a semester, but decided against it because I was in the same exact area I grew up around all the same people; it was like I was just going to a different high school,” Ceasar said. “One day I went to a Stewart’s shop – the one I know now is just down the street from Recruiting Station Albany – and I saw a Marine sergeant major. Well, I grew up in a military family and was familiar with the culture, so I addressed him by his rank. He was taken back by the gesture and asked me, ‘You ever talk to one of my recruiters?’”

    He enlisted 72 hours later and departed for boot camp aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, a month thereafter.

    The rest is history.

    “My last eight years have been a journey for sure," Ceasar said. “It’s been an amazing opportunity for me to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and I even was able to use some of my French skills I learned in high school out in Morocco. But the biggest things I’ve taken away from the Corps are self-discipline and reliance."

    “I see myself in a lot of the youth I work with today,” Ceasar added. “School wasn’t my strong-suit, and I’d talk back or question my teachers and authority because I knew I could. That’s where self-discipline comes in; if anything, it’s a sense of respect for myself and others, and that’s what I try to embody and push onto these kids now. Give respect to gain it.”

    Newburgh Free Academy, located in Newburgh, New York, is one of Ceasar’s primary zones to search for America’s next generation of Marines. Working hand-in-hand with the school’s Junior Recruit Officer Training Corps – and through spurring his own involvement in the school, as he did on Aug. 25, 2015, by running a leadership seminar with its football team – Ceasar recruits out of his backyard for those future Marines inherently responsible with embodying the nation’s highest professional and moral virtues.

    “The thing with [Sgt. Ceasar] is he doesn’t sugarcoat anything with our kids,” explained retired Air Force Col. Edward Seward, the senior JROTC instructor for Newburgh Free Academy. “He’s around our school and community quite often, and he doesn’t focus so much on the opportunities the Marine Corps offers as he does the hardships and challenges that come with military life.”

    In contemporary high school society, Seward has analyzed over his tenure with NFA, the sense of competition has been reduced – for better or worse.

    “Kids these days can’t even begin to imagine their limits or potential,” Seward said. “So, when a kid in our program is interested in the military but can’t pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, [Sgt. Ceasar] really works with the individual and guides them to the resources they need to pass the entrance exam. He’s always challenging the kids to achieve something – either in the classroom or through physical training – without giving up anything for free.”

    Cooperation between mentor and mentee – or Ceasar and NFA’s senior classmen, in this case – stems from their shared experiences and challenges in upbringing, Seward said. He explained that the two parties can relate on the grounds of, “been there, done that.”

    Ceasar affirms this.

    “Just being able to understand the hardships these kids are going through, as far as being surrounded by friends involved with the wrong things – as is the case in any high school – and being that living proof, that example,” Ceasar said, “it makes everything worth it.

    “These kids need to be shown they can be the one to get out of this – that with a sincere desire to change their lives for the better, they can live a positive and influential life.”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 10.15.2015
    Date Posted: 10.15.2015 15:17
    Story ID: 179028
    Location: PEEKSKILL, NY, US
    Hometown: ALBANY, NY, US

    Web Views: 110
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN