Passing on the Legacy

PARRIS ISLAND, SC, UNITED STATES

11.22.2021

Story by Cpl. Ryan Hageali        

Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island           

Lt. Col. Michael Rock joined the Marine Corps during peace time, then the deadliest attack in United States history happened. Twenty years later he is charge of making Marines, most of whom weren’t even alive during the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Rock grew up in Barton, Vt. His father was a Marine and his brother served in the Navy. At first, Rock was not interested in military service. After graduating high school, he enrolled at Coastal Carolina University.
“I was big into sports; I was going to be an athlete and go to school and just figure out what I was going to do with my life,” said Rock. “I don’t remember the class I was in, but the teacher was going around the horn saying, ‘What are you going to do, what are you going to do when you graduate?’ It just hit me [that I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I graduated] but I think I might want to try something different.”
Rock talked to an Officer Selection Officer and joined the Marine Corps in 2000. He commissioned after completing Officer Candidates School at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. then attended follow-on courses to become a communications officer.
Everything would soon change for Rock. On September 11, 2001, the world stood still as approximately 3,000 people were killed during terrorist attacks on the United States.
“I started getting frantic phone calls from my wife saying, ‘You got to turn on the news you won’t believe what is happening,’” said Rock. “The thought that something like that could happen in the US, I think that’s what the hardest part was. You see stuff like that, you see things happen in other countries and you think they will never happen here then ‘bam,’ it does.”
Rock, who joined expecting peace, now knew he was going to war.
“I had a feeling that whatever I was getting ready to do was going to be something different, I knew it was going to be important,” said Rock. “It didn’t change my decision at all, it wasn’t going to be something that was going to be a short time thing. It was going to be a long fight.”
Two years later in 2003, Rock was stationed at Camp Pendleton with 1st Marine Division as a radio platoon commander. Soon he was deployed to Kuwait and crossed the border into Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“We were preparing, then we finally got the call that we were actually going to cross the border,” said Rock. “I can’t really describe going through some of that stuff. You see movies, you see that stuff happening and now I’m living it.”
Once Rock returned to the United States, he became an instructor at communication school in Quantico, Va. Years later in 2009, Rock would also deploy to Afghanistan. Rock said an incident with an Afghanistan National Army Soldier happened and one of their Marines was killed.
“Afghanistan was a little bit of a different time,” said Rock. “We had a blue on green incident. It was very difficult knowing that was going on.”
Rock said with each new experience, good or bad he became more knowledgeable. He returned from Afghanistan filling any billet the Marine Corps asked of him. In June 2021, Rock was sent to Parris Island to become the Commanding officer of 1st Recruit Training Battalion.
Rock, now in charge of an entire Battalion of Marines and recruits, oversees the training and transformation process. Rock said the United States is not in wartime but at Parris Island Marines and recruits prepare like it is.
“Part of being a Marine is training and preparing for the next fight,” said Rock. “The drill instructors in charge of these recruits have gone through it, their experiences make the training better than ever. Even though the Marines graduating might not go to a combat deployment right away, they are prepared to.”

• Date Taken: 11.22.2021
• Date Posted: 11.22.2021 14:57
• Story ID: 409810
• Location: PARRIS ISLAND, SC, US