MIHAIL KOGALNICENAU, Romania - Marines and sailors with Black Sea Rotational Force 14 strive to accomplish the unit’s mission of promoting regional stability and security, increasing military capacity and interoperability, and maintaining partnerships with their counterparts in Eastern Europe.
Along with all of their efforts for mission accomplishment, the Marines still have yet one more goal to strive for while with BSRF-14; that goal is Marine of the Week.
Lance Cpl. Taran Trussell, a rifleman with BSRF-14, and Murrieta, Calif. native, was selected for Marine of the Week for outstanding performance and leadership at Mihail Kogalnicenau, Romania, Nov. 22, 2013.
Trussell believes that he received the award for his willingness to learn, his positive attitude towards work, and improving Corporal Jason Albright, a team leader with BSRF-14, and Minneapolis, Minn. native, said that he received the award for really stepping up over the past week.
“He steps up in leadership and controls things that would be normally expected of a team leader, like running machine gun drills without being told to for the junior Marines,” said Albright.
Trussell said that he joined the Marine Corps because he wanted to become a better man and he had a strong military family history.
Albright said that there are many attributes that make Trussell a good leader and Marine.
“[He has] initiative, integrity, and he’s dependable. You can trust him to take care of whatever needs to get done, and he won’t wait to be told to do it,” said Albright.
Trussell said that he’s had a few highlights for this deployment so far.
“[I liked] being able to train with the foreign military. It’s cool to see how other people operate in the same line of work,” said Trussell.
Trussell also said that while he’s in Romania he hopes to gain as much knowledge as he can from the senior Marines in his platoon to impart on his junior Marines.
According to Albright, Trussell has the potential to be a great squad leader in the future, and his character could positively influence a lot of Marines in his care.