Photo By Sgt. Tayler Schwamb | CAMP GONSALVES, OKINAWA, Japan— Sgt. Terrin Spittle sits on endurance course wall...... read more read more
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CAMP GONSALVES, OKINAWA, Japan— “When I came into work on Monday I didn’t know whether I would have a job or not,” confided Sgt. Terrin M. Spittle, the survivor of a severe motorcycle crash, now, an instructor for Jungle Warfare Training aboard Camp Gonsalves.
Spittle is a bronze, brawny man whose boisterous but charismatic personality is well known throughout the tightly knit group of rugged jungle warfare instructors. When he isn’t in the gym lifting, you can usually see him running around with the camp’s mascot, a dog named Millie.
Yet, Spittle wasn’t always the leanest, meanest jungle warfare instructor of the most tenacious Marines on Okinawa.
After a deployment in Iraq, Spittle returned home on post-deployment leave with plans to separate from the Marine Corps to work for the Los Angles Sherif’s Department.
But Spittle’s life took a tragic turn.
“I was on a bike, headed home for Mother’s Day,” explained Spittle, a Stockton, California, native. “It was the third time I was trying to head home. The first time I left, something happened with my bike so I didn’t leave. The second day I left, made it about halfway home and my wallet flew out of my back pocket. I had to ask for 10 dollars so I could make it 200 miles back from where I just came. Usually the third time is the charm, but I guess it wasn’t meant for me to go home for Mother’s Day.”
Spittle didn’t remember what happened but the eyewitnesses claimed he was reaching down on the bike, looking up at traffic and then down at his bike, according to Spittle as he absent-mindedly played with his calloused hands. Spittle veered and hit the truck. The eyewitnesses called an ambulance proclaiming that he was dead. The Emergency Medical Technicians were the first ones on scene, attempting to revive him, but he wasn’t waking up. Moments before one of the doctors proclaimed his death, he woke back up. Spittle looked at the female EMT, asked her out on a date, and the eyewitnesses watched as his eyes rolled back and he passed back out. After passing out, the EMTs transported him doing everything they could to keep me alive.
“Being in that accident changed nothing other than my outlook on life,” said Spittle. “I was blessed to live and I do believe everyone has their purpose here, it made me think.”
Spittle suffered from two partially collapsed lungs, broken ribs, and broken bones in his face. After a mere week of recovery, Spittle thrust himself back into work.
“I did what I had to do, what any other man would do,” said Spittle. “We were short men at the time and I knew my Marines couldn’t afford to not have me there. They needed a section leader, so while still healing I put my flak on. I didn’t go on light duty, or limited duty. When I had my flak on it hurt to breathe, but having everything held in actually made it feel better.”
Yet, because of the accident the Los Angles Sherif’s Department had to withdraw their offer for a year. Spittle immediately put in an extension packet for three months, coming into work the following Monday not knowing whether it would have been accepted. Upon its acceptance, Spittle began his reenlistment process, reenlisting a week afterwards.
Spittle continued to heal, teaching his Marines and bettering himself physically and mentally.
“The gym helps me cope,” said Spittle. “It puts my mind at ease, for a while I wasn’t coping well and the gym helps me stay from that. You have so much time to work on yourself, seek self-improvement and lead differently.”
Spittle believes that mindsets are contagious, which is why he continues embody the warrior ethos being a prime example for his Marines and students. Spittle is now a jungle warfare training instructor with the b-billet of combat instructor on the horizon.
“Jungle warfare training makes you a better leader because it teaches you patience,” said Sgt. John D. Brown, an instructor at Jungle Warfare Training and one of Spittle’s closest friends aboard Camp Gonsalves. “In the fleet you have less Marines underneath you, but in a training environment, they won’t always do what you want them to do, or how you want to do it. There are different standards, different ways to complete the mission. We balance each other out. It goes along with the good cop, bad cop deal. He’s an aggressive force, the man who tells you to do something and I’ll tell you why.”
Brown and Spittle continuously work to embody Camp Gonsalves’s saying “Hard training makes hard Marines.”
“Everyone leaves here with something more,” said Spittle. “Being out here is a constant learning experience but it’s all about who takes the training. Here you learn about the jungle, life, tactics, being a Marine, testing your own abilities. If you put your all into it then you will come out something better. As for the Marines I will teach? I’ll show them to do life better than it will do you. The best thing you can personally teach the Marines is how to have a good mindset. They might be two years shy of my age or straight out of high school, but the Marines don’t have the same mindset. You’ve got to go into it hard, fully and with strength. Life is going to treat you in all sorts of ways, when it is bad, treat the bad better than it is treating you. When the good comes, make it better somehow, make the good great. When the great comes, make it insurmountable.”
Spittle’s mental fortitude and military aptitude strengthens the junior Marines he currently instructs at JWTC and will instruct in the future at School of Infantry or Marine Combat Training as a combat instructor.
“He is going to change Marines,” said Brown. “When he teaches Marines at SOI he will teach them discipline, respect and the other missing links. Spittle will implement that, easy. He’ll makes Marines more effective for when they reach a combat situation.”
| Date Taken: | 08.14.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.18.2017 02:10 |
| Story ID: | 245203 |
| Location: | JUNGLE WARFARE TRAINING, OKINAWA, JP |
| Hometown: | STOCKTON, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 291 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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