Photo By Andrew Miller | U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Blake Brown, a Tuscaloosa, Ala., native, is currently serving a...... read more read more
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CAMP DWYER, Helmand province, Afghanistan – U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Blake Brown, a Tuscaloosa, Ala., native, is currently serving a one-year tour with Regimental Combat Team 5 in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
Brown, 22, graduated from North Side High School in 2008 and is a Ground and Air Transportation Coordinator with the RCT-5 logistics section.
Although the Marine Corps has provided Brown with opportunities that only about one percent of the population will ever have, he remains thankful for where he is from. Growing up in the western Alabama city of over 83,000 people, Brown said there were always things to do.
“It is a big college town, and I really liked growing up there,” said the faithful Crimson Tide fan. “There were a lot of new faces every year and a lot of activities on the weekends.”
He made the most of his time in high school, excelling in just about every sport offered at his school in Samantha, Ala.
“Sports were a big thing for me in high school. I played just about every sport we had,” Brown said. “We had a really good baseball team that was in the playoffs every year I played.”
Brown quickly realized that there is more to life after graduation than sports and having a good time. He dabbled in college after high school but with little direction. In June 2010 and at 21-years-old, he made the decision to join the Marine Corps.
“I needed something to help make me a better person and make me more responsible,” he said.“My younger years were spent just getting out of the house…just leaving home, and I wasn’t very responsible.”
His parents were not on board initially. His mother Kelly Brown, a local school nurse, and his father, Roy Brown, who works for Mercedes, had reservations about their son enlisting.
“It was a battle at first, but they accepted it,” said Brown. “They knew it would make me a better person. After they saw me graduate at Parris Island they got it and saw how I changed.”
Brown chose the occupational specialty of embarkation specialist with his future in mind.
“There’s a future in embarkation,” he said, not having decided yet whether or not the Marine Corps will be a career. “There are a lot of jobs out there in this field. It allows me time to do school while I’m still in the Marine Corps, and I definitely want to stick with this after the Corps.”
After completing recruit training and his initial occupational training, Brown reported to his first command, 5th Marine Regiment, aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., in June 2011.
Shortly after arriving he received deployment orders and departed for southern Helmand province with RCT- 5 in August. Although this made Brown the most junior Marine assigned to the regiment’s logistics section at the time, he was up for the challenge.
“I like this job because there’s a lot of thinking involved, and being the junior Marine puts a lot of pressure on me…gives me more responsibility,” Brown said. “So far I think I am handling it well.”
Brown’s supervisors think highly of his work ethic even though he's still learning. He is professional and able to work consistently with both officers and senior enlisted personnel.
“Lance Cpl. Brown easily learned his duties. He is very attentive and won't stop until he feels he has mastered the task at hand,” said Gunnery Sgt. Germaen Ramirez, the RCT-5 Logistics Chief. “Brown facilitates all ground requests that come in for RCT-5. He also assists the Air Officer with managing and scrubbing flight requests that come from all the battalions. “
Brown’s job is critical to the overall mission success of RCT-5. He helps to coordinate any and all movement in and around Camp Dwyer – whether it is air movement, aircraft entering or leaving the base, or ground movement, convoys of Marines or supplies entering or leaving the base.
“My job is critical out here because if supplies don’t get moved or if people don’t get moved, we could be in a whole lot of trouble,” he said. “It is really mission essential to do what we have to do everyday.”
So far, this deployment has provided Brown with everything he was looking for when he joined the Marine Corps.
“Out here I’ve gained a lot more maturity. I’m a lot more responsible now,” he said. “I see things going on out here that will definitely help me later on in life.”
Brown is scheduled to return to the U.S. with the rest of RCT-5 next August. Upon returning, he plans to follow through with some promises he made prior to departing on this journey
“I made a promise to someone very special (his grandmother, Jackie Brown) that I would finish college, so I plan to get my associate’s degree while I’m in the Marine Corps,” said Brown. “Hopefully I will get my bachelor’s when I’m out.”
Editor’s note: Regimental Combat Team 5 is assigned to 2nd Marine Division (Forward), which heads Task Force Leatherneck. The task force serves as the ground combat element of Regional Command (Southwest) and works in partnership with the Afghan National Security Force and the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to conduct counterinsurgency operations. The unit is dedicated to securing the Afghan people, defeating insurgent forces, and enabling ANSF assumption of security responsibilities within its area of operations in order to support the expansion of stability, development and legitimate governance.
| Date Taken: | 12.16.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 12.18.2011 13:23 |
| Story ID: | 81551 |
| Location: | CAMP DWYER, AF |
| Web Views: | 110 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Tuscaloosa native keeps RCT-5 moving in Afghanistan, by Andrew Miller, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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