Photo By Cpl. Bridget Keane | Pvt. Brian Walsh, Platoon 1015, Company A, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, moved to...... read more read more
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SAN DIEGO - As a young boy, Pvt. Brian Walsh, Platoon 1015, Company A, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, wrote a letter to his future-self, containing all his dreams and ambitions. The one dream that would be his main goal in life was to become a United States Marine.
The Royal Oak, Mich. native spent most of his childhood with the desire to earn the title, admiring the brotherhood and camaraderie that he saw in Marines.
“I always looked at Marines as being heroes and idols,” said Walsh, 20. “I saw the commitment they made to serve their country as a sense of honor that they could only hold.”
As time went on, Walsh later thought that he’d never be able to fulfill his dream when he learned his family would be moving to Ireland when he was 9-years-old.
“My parents needed to move back to help support our family, I didn’t think I’d ever have the chance to come back and be a Marine,” explained Walsh.
Walsh moved to Crosshaven, County Cork, Ireland, where he continued his education and helped his family with work for 10 years. But his desire to be a Marine was held above anything else in his life.
“My mother wanted me to join the Irish Defense Force so I could stay in Ireland,” said Walsh. “But I was born here (America) and I felt that I had a greater bond here than anywhere else.”
Aware of the dream held so close to his heart, Walsh’s family saw it as him taking an initiative in his life. They knew that the right thing for him was to move back to America so he could accomplish his goal.
Walsh’s supportive mother had kept his passport throughout the years to help prove his American citizenship when it was time to enlist.
Walsh moved back to America in 2011 where he stayed with his aunt in Jackson, Mich. When he walked into the local recruiting office to enlist, Walsh was discouraged by the amount of paper work that kept appearing with his name on it. His recruiter had difficulty finding a way to translate his school transcripts from Gaelic to English.
“Irish education is different from American and I was nervous that I was going to have to go through more schooling,” explained Walsh.
Walsh’s recruiters continued to encourage him as they went to great lengths to translate his transcripts. They went to several different colleges to talk to experts in the language and finally called the Irish embassy to verify all his information.
August 4 of that year Walsh took the oath to serve in the country he was born in and was shipped off to Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego April 16.
Culture shock is common for recruits aboard the depot as they go through the fast-paced, first phase of their training. Walsh appeared to have a more difficult time than most coming from a completely different culture, explained Staff Sgt. Shawn Roberts, senior drill instructor, plt. 1015.
“Like most recruits, he had a hard time adapting, but he worked really hard and put forth the effort to correct himself and make up for his deficiencies,” said Roberts. “When you see how hard a recruit works to better himself, you begin to notice how it motivates the rest of the platoon.”
Walsh worked hard to grasp the terms of Marine Corps knowledge; drill and the other mental and physical aspects of recruit training. His fellow recruits observed his hard work and also noticed his happy-go-lucky attitude that highlighted him above other recruits.
“He was always a fun-loving type of recruit,” explained Pvt. Luke Oliver, his rack mate throughout the training cycle. “He knew when to have fun and when it was time to train”
With the effort Walsh put forth to better himself as a recruit, he proved to his drill instructor and peers he wanted to be there and become a Marine. He earned his Eagle, Globe and Anchor July 5 and plans on making the Marine Corps a career.
“I feel that the best way to serve your country is to serve in the armed forces,” said Walsh. “I’m proud to be able to serve the country I was born in as a Marine.”
| Date Taken: | 06.26.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 07.16.2012 19:19 |
| Story ID: | 91645 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 105 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Recruit comes back to America, becomes a Marine, by Cpl Bridget Keane, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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