Photo By 94th Airlift Wing | Lance Cpl. Tyler Frazier, left, takes a picture with Lt. Gen. William D. Beydler, The...... read more read more
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U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Tyler Frazier was sitting outside his tent when his staff sergeant approached. It was another hot day in Syria.
“How you like standing post, Frazier?” he asked.
The 19-year-old Culpeper, Virginia native and infantryman had been one of dozens of Marines acting as security forces while deployed to Syria in support of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.
Their mission: to stand watch in guard towers surrounding the perimeter the Marines occupied. Day and night, for hours at a time, Frazier and his fellow Marines watched and listened for potential threats.
Frazier thought about the question for a moment and realized something about himself. Growing up in Culpeper actually prepared him not only for the Marines, but also for his mission. Standing post was similar to the days he spent as a child hunting in the thick forests of Virginia.
“You go out into the woods and wait for hours on end and wait for something to happen,” he told his staff sergeant. “You have to be vigilant, or you’re going to miss it.”
Frazier said standing post and hunting were virtually the same to him. The big difference, he noted, were the stakes.
At home in Virginia, it’s a missed opportunity to go home with some venison. While deployed, it’s spotting a threat in enough time to protect the lives of himself and his fellow Marines, he said.
During the countless on hours of post Frazier and his Marines stood during their deployment, circumstances didn’t boil over into a life or death situation. But they could have. That was the point for Frazier.
He said, the mentality that “nothing has happened yet, so why should it now” is hard to shake. The phrase “today is the day” was written on wooden planks around the Marines’ living areas. It served as a reminder from their commander to always be ready.
Long before Frazier was keeping watch, he knew he was going to serve in the military.
“I’ve always wanted to be a warrior,” he said. “Everybody I grew up with was in the military. My grandfather was a soldier and all of his brothers were Marine door gunners in Vietnam.”
A stint in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at Culpeper High School introduced Frazier to the idea of being a Marine.
“The Marines were the biggest challenge; the hardest to get into; first to fight,” he said. “Being the force that took Belleau Wood in France. The island-hopping campaign in the Pacific. Taking Fallujah and Ramadi in Iraq. People always talk about wanting to be a part of something bigger than themselves,” he said.
Like many Virginians, he wanted to join a service branch that embodied that ethos fully—the Marine Corps. Lt. Gen. William D. Beydler, a native of Harrisonburg, Virginia, and commander of all Marine forces in the Middle East had a recent encounter with Frazier in Kuwait where the two sat across from each other while sharing a meal.
“Lance Cpl. Frazier is one of those few great Americans… great Virginians, who is willing to serve and sacrifice for something bigger than himself… willing to accept a challenge and hold himself to a higher standard. Culpeper should be proud,” Beydler said.
Frazier says he has found his purpose. It’s thousands of miles away from home in a “hot box” with a combat load on his body, a medium machine gun and another Marine by his side scanning their sectors and fighting fatigue, boredom and complacency to be their unit’s first line of defense if “Today is the day.”
| Date Taken: | 11.16.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 11.16.2017 14:19 |
| Story ID: | 255566 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NC, US |
| Hometown: | CULPEPER, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 193 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Culpeper, Va. native reflects on what it means to be a Marine, by Matthew Callahan, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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