Photo By Lance Cpl. Abigail Hutcheson | U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Kamoryn Rogers, Combat Logistics Battalion 6 Motor...... read more read more
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CAMP JOHNSON, N.C. – On a mild spring morning at Camp Gilbert H. Johnson in North Carolina, Gunnery Sgt. Kamoryn Rogers stands ankle-deep in mud, demonstrating how to recover a vehicle out of a ditch to a group of Marines. His voice, colored with a distinct Appalachian drawl, cuts through the hum of idling trucks as he explains the finer points of rigging and yanking a stuck 7-ton truck from a ditch. In less than two weeks, Rogers would be polished up and decked out in his pristine service uniform, standing under the bright lights of the banquet hall at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, where a high-ranking general would present him the award for being the Marine Corps’ 2024 Enlisted Logistician of the Year. Following the pomp and circumstance of the awards banquet, Rogers return to the outdoor classroom, wearing his combat utility uniform with his sleeves rolled up; boots caked in mud—doing what he has been doing for the past 13 years: leading and teaching Marines.
Rogers grew up in Newport, Tennessee, a small town of less than 7,00 people that sits at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. His formative years were spent working in auto parts stores and listening to the stories of men who had seen war up close. Chief among them was his grandfather who had served as a Marine in Vietnam
“He was kind of a Marine first and then, you know, kind of a person second,” recalled Rogers, “which is kind of, you know, pretty on brand for that era.”
Rogers credits his grandfather as being the single greatest influence in getting him to enlist in the Marine Corps
“There was just something about that that stuck with me,” Rogers said. “I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do it right.”
Motivated by family legacy and a personal drive to serve, he enlisted immediately after high school, actively seeking out a Marine Corps recruiter rather than waiting for one to find him.
“He didn't have to sell me on anything,” Rogers recalls of his recruiting process. He knew he wanted to be a Marine and he also knew from the start that he was going to be in the motor transportation, or “Motor T” as Marines call it, occupational field. “I wanted to be Motor T from the rip.”
Motor T operators are trained to drive and manage tactical vehicles – moving troops, gear and equipment across all types of terrain in any whether, especially in combat. Rogers’ early love of spending time under to hood of a vehicle and working with his hands made him a natural fit for the job.
"I love being a motor t operator," Rogers said. "At the core of it, that's who I am. You know what I mean? Motor T bubba through and through."
In August 2012, Rogers shipped off to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina and later completed his formal job training as a Motor T operator at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. His first was with 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, a unit within the famed 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Although he arrived after they had finished their last deployment to Afghanistan, the high operational tempo at 2nd LAR provided valuable experience.
“Growing up in [2nd Marine Division] first, I think was paramount to my success thus far,” Rogers said.
Rogers describes himself as being somewhat of a ‘fiery fella’ during those formative years in the motor pool at 2nd LAR. He would come in hot, barking orders and charging hard. But it didn’t take long before he realized the way he was leading wasn’t working.
“I was yelling too much,” he admitted. “And it just wasn’t landing.”
So, he gave himself a reset.
One afternoon, he grabbed a pressure washer, crawled underneath a grease-caked 7-ton truck, and started cleaning. On his back, Rogers began to get soaked in oil and mud as he methodically stripped the grime off the undercarriage. He wasn’t just washing dirt off a truck – he was scrubbing some of the dirt off his soul.
“That was my grounding moment,” he said. “I needed to slow down. Get back to the basics.”
From then on, Rogers led with more purpose. He poured into his Marines, and began shifting from a hard-charger to a steady hand. When he pinned on his corporal chevrons, the significance was clear. “It was intoxicating,” he said. “As soon as you throw on that corporal chevron, it no longer becomes about you anymore. Now it’s about the Marines.”
After his initial tour, Rogers transferred to Combat Logistics Battalion 4 in Okinawa, Japan. A CLB provides tactical-level logistics support to Marine Corps units, especially those operating with infantry or maneuver elements. Their job is to ensure that frontline forces have everything they need to keep fighting and moving. Rogers thrived in the demanding environment, running convoys, maintaining vehicles, and participating in multinational field exercises across the Pacific. "The cool part about being out there is whenever you go to the field, you go to a different country," Rogers said, reflecting on the experiences that broadened both his technical and cultural perspective.
Rogers was then screened and selected for Marine Security Guard duty, a high-profile and prestigious assignment where Marines are tasked with protecting U.S. Embassies around the world. He served tours at U.S. embassies in Ottawa, Canada, and Beijing, China during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Returning to Camp Lejeune in 2021, Rogers checked into Combat Logistics Battalion 6. His timing coincided with the Marine Corps’ push toward Force Design 2030, an ambitious effort to modernize the Corps for future conflict against peer adversaries.
Rogers helped build the Littoral Tactical Logistics Section within CLB-6, a concept focused on providing agile logistical support to dispersed forces operating in coastal and island environments. He deployed multiple times to Europe, working with Finnish and Swedish forces in exercises such as Freezing Winds and Cold Response.
“So, we were in Sweden and then we were in Finland doing proof of concepts for littoral, moti, modal…you know…name your buzzword,” Rogers explained. “Essentially, we were doing logistics over water, right. We had some gear we were testing; we were putting it on the back of CB90s (fast assault craft) and we were doing all kinds of cool stuff.”
At one point during Exercise Freezing Winds in 2022, Rogers’ commanding general, Brig. Gen. Michael McWilliams, visited him and his Marines as they were driving boats with Finnish troops. Rogers decided to take the general for a ride.
“I was trying to show him how to do an emergency stop and, typically, it's a pretty aggressive stop, but since we had like seven or eight Marines on the boat, it wasn't too crazy,” chuckled Rogers, who went from being just a “motor t bubba from a small town in Tennessee” to chauffeuring a general in a boat off the coast of Finland.
“I think the good general had a great time.”
During these exercises, Rogers led port operations groups, coordinated multinational logistics efforts, trained Marines in cold-weather vehicle operations, led a coxswain’s course for Marines, and facilitated the transportation more than five million pounds of cargo.
Rogers’ work during this time helped to build practical relationships with NATO allies and tested new approaches to sustainment in contested environments. These efforts contributed to him being recognized as the Marine Corps’ Enlisted Logistician of the Year. The award honors the top-performing enlisted Marine who demonstrates innovation, leadership, and superior performance across the logistics enterprise.
“To me, I was just kind of doing my thing,” Rogers said with characteristic humility. “But to everybody else, all the brass and everything, that must have stuck out to them because they decided to write me up for the award.”
Rogers emphasized that the recognition was not an individual accomplishment but a reflection of the Marines he led. “I am successful because my Marines allowed me to be successful,” he said. “They trusted me to do my job, and I trusted them to do theirs.”
Today, Rogers serves as a Motor Transport Staff Noncommissioned Officer Operations Course Instructor at the Logistics Operations School, Marine Corps Combat Service Support Schools located at Camp Johnson, North Carolina.
In this role, he prepares motor transport staff sergeants and gunnery sergeants to function as motor transport operations chiefs. The course encompasses a broad range of topics related to motor transport operations, including administrative procedures, planning for vehicle operations, and preparing for motor transport convoy operations.
Being an instructor allows Rogers to scratch an itch he’s had since he was a junior Marine – to give back to and contribute to the community that shaped him.
“I always had this aspiration of being an instructor,” said Rogers. “I was like, I want to go teach Marines about Motor T. It's just a bonus on top that, like, hey, I get to see my wife and kids more.”
For Rogers, stepping into the classroom each day isn’t just about delivering instruction—it’s about learning from the Marines sitting in the classroom just as much as they learn from him.
“You get like 32 Marines, all from different backgrounds, all with different unique personalities,” Rogers said. “And you kind of pull from those experiences… I’d be lying if I said anything else, but you honestly learn just as much from them as they learn from you—if you’re a good instructor.
“Once these Marines understand that you’re there to teach them… they open up—it’s game over. Just be prepared to have a firehose right back at you.”
He lights up when talking about NCOs who bring real-world motor pool experience into the room—because that’s when, as he puts it, “you really get down to brass tacks of what this stuff looks like.”
Whether it’s in the field or the classroom, Rogers remains grounded in the same principle that guided him under that 7-ton truck years ago: lead with humility, stay teachable, and never lose the fire.
| Date Taken: | 05.21.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.21.2025 17:22 |
| Story ID: | 498628 |
| Location: | CAMP JOHNSON, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | NEWPORT, TENNESSEE, US |
| Web Views: | 179 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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