‘They deserve your respect and your support’

Fri, May 16 2008

— THE MILITARY VIEW
By Jerry Hogan

Sgt. Chris McMaster, USMC, a 1999 graduate of Royse City High School, has just recently returned from an assignment in Japan where he was the crew chief on a CH-53 helicopter.
Now, being a “crew chief”, means he is basically responsible for everything about the aircraft except the actual flying itself. To learn this job he of course, went through the normal Boot Camp and follow-on infantry training all Marines receive, and then he went through a year and a half of very specialized training on all aspects of this particular helicopter, a $30 million piece of equipment. He was then deployed to Japan.
But he really wasn’t in Japan. Instead he was floating around on the Pacific Ocean in an organization called a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) with another nineteen hundred Marines on board a variety of amphibious assault ships. This unit is a rapid response force where the Marines load on the ships with all of their equipment and supplies so they can steam immediately to a troubled area and be deployed ashore to go into battle without additional reinforcements.
It can sorta be compared to that old story pilots will always tell when asked about their job, “endless hours of boredom interspersed with minutes of pure terror.” And that’s what it’s like floating around for seven months at a time.
As you would expect, the MEU also conducts lots of training, some of it by itself and some with other nations. For example, while Sgt. McMaster was in the MEU, they conducted joint operations with South Korea, The Philippines, Australia, Hong Kong, and Cambodia. In fact, they were the first U.S. unit to be on Cambodian soil since the Vietnam War.
But most of the time the Marines are afloat in the ship as it steams around the Western Pacific. I asked Sgt. McMaster what they do on a typical day. “Obviously a typical day on the boat varies from Marine to Marine and sailor to sailor, but for me a day usually consisted of pre-launch maintenance and aircraft inspection, a briefing of the day’s sorties and my specific mission, followed by a brief to the aircrew, and then the actual mission being flown that day.
If we weren’t flying, I usually spent the day working with aircrew training programs and planning for future operations. We also did physical training each day. We tended to work, on the aviation side, at least 12-hour days, and if we were flying, many times it would extend into 14 and 16 hour days. We work a lot with embarking and debarking troops and cargo so we are at all times ready to take the fight on shore in an emergency situation. We also have a secondary mission of humanitarian aid if needed.”
Returning to the States earlier this year, Sgt. McMaster is now assigned to Mirramar Marine Corps Air Station right adjacent to San Diego. (For those of you who saw the movie “Top Gun,” this is where the actual Top Gun school was located.) Now he is in charge of training the aircraft crew chiefs in his squadron. He also is responsible for being the Operations Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) and the Safety NCO for the squadron.
Having just returned from a demanding assignment, I asked him what he would tell a person thinking about joining the military today. “I would tell someone interested in the service to do your research. Determine why you want to join and what you want to do. The service is a very unique opportunity in that you can do many different jobs and get great benefits while you do it. There are so many things that I was able to experience because of the Marine Corps. Not only the different places and cultures that I have been able to experience, but the people in the service as well. Anyone looking to see and do exciting things and meet people who are proactive and genuinely care about each other would definitely be pleased with the military. The camaraderie is very strong, and these men and women will go out of their way even if they don’t have the time to do so just to make sure that everyone is taken care of. All in all, determine what you want out of the military and stick to your goals and in the end you will get enough support and opportunity to meet and exceed those goals, and you will be better because of it.”
Prior to joining the Marine Corps, Sgt. McMaster attended Texas A&M University - Commerce. He is currently short just one semester from graduating with a degree in business, so one of the choices he is wrestling with right now is whether to get out of the USMC at the end of his enlistment in October, 2009 and finish his degree or to stay in and finish it while on active duty. Like most Marines and Soldiers today, he also expects a deployment to either Iraq or Afghanistan fairly quickly. So, just like on board the ship in the Pacific, uncertainty is something that he must live with every day.
I asked him if he would like to say anything to his friends and neighbors back here in our part of the country. His answer: “I would like to say please support your troops whether you agree with the current war or not. Your support means a lot to those serving and they are working hard to help make this world a better place and to ensure that you continue to have the freedoms you enjoy. These men and women are doing something that most won’t or can’t, for whatever reason. They do this because they feel it is their duty. They deserve your respect and your support. They are very special people with great hearts and high ideals of what America is and should be, and they are actively pursuing a better world not only for Americans, but for everyone. Just know that the military is still fighting to not only win the world over with its actions, but now more than ever, the American people too.”
I don’t know how it could be said any better. Please go out of your way to think about what our fighting men and women are doing for us each day as they fight in this International War on Terrorism. Our freedoms and our way of life are at stake in this global war. Our military members know this … I hope you do too. Please thank our service men and women every chance you get.

Jerry Hogan is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who lives in Heath, Texas. To have your friend or relative highlighted in this column, contact him at 214-394-4033 or jerryhogan@sbcglobal.net.