Marines give back to a local Marine veteran

Photo By Sgt. Austin Long | Marines, with 2nd Battalion 8th Marines, worked with representatives from Home Depot, the company who worked with the Semper Fi Fund to provide building materials and machinery, work together to dig a hole for the fence post, at a Marine veteran’s home Oct. 25. Marines and sailors provided the work effort while the Semper Fi Fund worked with Home Depot, and Cooper and Sons Small Engines to provide the necessary materials. “These young men will never understand how much this means to me and my family,” said Johnny McCalom, the Marine veteran, homeowner.  

JACKSONVILLE, NC, UNITED STATES

10.25.2012

Story by Lance Cpl. Austin Long 

II Marine Expeditionary Force   

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - Semper Fidelis, the term that means always faithful has been the Marine Corps’s motto since 1883. Ever since then it has held firm. Describing all Marines, from past to present, young to old. Once a Marine, always a Marine.

For one local Marine, all hope was lost in the meaning of Semper Fidelis and in his Marine brothers.

But, Marines with 2d Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, decided to change that and give back to their community, starting with their Marine brother.

“I’m not going to lie. I thought the Marine Corps had forgotten about me. That they had given me the bird and were (not directly) saying figure it out on your own ‘war hero’. But, seeing these young men out here, gave me back my hope and shows me that the Marine Corps still does inspire it’s corps motto,” said Johnny McCalom, Marine veteran of Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

McCalom served in the Army for 10 years before joining the Marine Corps. In between services he was a civilian for three years. McCalom had multiple reasons for joining the Corps. His main reason was because of a promise he made to his step-father, a promise to join the Marine Corps once he was tired of the Army. His second reason, was the way he could tell a difference in the way the two branches trained their service members.

After serving six and a half years in the Marine Corps, and two deployments, McCalom was medically retired from service due to injuries he acquired while on patrols.

Due to McCalom’s injuries, he’s not able to do things around the house as quickly as he once could, but that didn’t stop him from trying. His main project on his mind was to build a privacy fence around his home in Jacksonville, but due to his injuries, he wasn’t able to complete the project that he began in January.

2/8 recently started providing more opportunities for Marines and sailors to volunteer in order to give back to the local community.

Sgt. Ryan Burke, a squad leader with 2/8 Fox company, said this project means more to him because it’s more than just giving back to the local community, he’s giving back to a fellow Marine.

Burke said, he realizes some Marines, who’ve stayed in the local area, may feel forgotten or a sense of brotherhood lost because they are not directly involved in the Marine Corps anymore and so it’s important that the young Marines and himself emphasize to new and old that once a Marine always a Marine.

Marines who live close to McCalom volunteered to come back throughout the week to help him with daily chores and yard work, after helping with the project and seeing it’s going to take more than a one-time visit to keep things working.

Hospital Corpsman Third Class, Samuel Markland, a corpsman with Headquarters and Support Company with 2/8, is the volunteer coordinator and said that the volunteer projects bring the Marines and sailors closer together. They are able to relax and just see all ranks and service members with different billets, work together and work as guys on a personal level and not so much on a professional level.

The family is very appreciative of the Marines and sailors coming out to help clean up the yard, fix the van, and build a fence. Without their help it may never have been completed and one Marine veteran would have felt left out and forgotten for the rest of his life.

“These young men will never know how much this means to me,” said McCalom. “I was going to do it myself, I’ve been doing a little bit since January to get it done, but I was killing myself in the process. This is why I joined the Marine Corps. They not only train to fight in wars and to put rounds on target, but they train you to be a better person and to serve others rather than yourself. They just won’t understand what this means for my faith in the Marine Corps, because I had given up hope and thought I was forgotten, but they’ve shown me once again the true spirit of the Marine Corps and its corps motto.”

• Date Taken: 10.25.2012
• Date Posted: 10.29.2012 12:26
• Story ID: 96914
• Location: JACKSONVILLE, NC, US