Poland native continues lifelong journey

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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (June 22, 2006) -- Many Marines say part of their decision to join the Corps is an interest in seeing the world. But for Sgt. Przemyslaw Terpilowski, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, Comptroller’s Office budget chief, immigrating to the United States was the beginning of his world travels.

His journey to the United States and the Marine Corps began 27 years ago in the town of Lapy, Poland. Located 100 miles northeast of Warsaw and near the border with Belarus, Terpilowski recalled playing soccer as a child.

“There was always something to do,” he said.

During 1992, Terpilowski’s parents, Alicja and Wieslaw, decided it was time for a change. At the age of 13, he and his family moved to Linden, N.J., in search of their American dream.

Terpilowski said his first memory of arriving in the States, was the difference in food and the cars on the roadways.

“It’s not that much different here, just the food,” he said. “I remember thinking how much nicer the cars were here than anything I’d ever seen in Poland.”

But American vehicles weren’t the only new thing he would have to adjust to. When Terpilowski arrived in the United States, the only language he knew was that of his native tongue. At 13 years old, he would have to learn English from the basics.

“I read books like ‘See Spot Run’ and stuff like that. Once you get the basics like he, she, it, they, you just keep adding on from there. ‘Sesame Street’ helped a lot too,” Terpilowski joked.

Terpilowski went to school and forced himself to learn English. Meanwhile his mother looked after the home and his father supported the family by working as an electrician. By 1998, he mastered the English language, graduated high school and began to contemplate his next move.

“I didn’t have money for college so the military seemed like a good choice,” he said. “When I went to the recruiting offices, the Marine Corps was the only one open at the time.”

During September 1998, his next step was Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. Since then, Terpilowski’s work has taken him to Okinawa, Japan; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and a tour in Iraq.

Terpilowki said the most challenging aspect of his yearlong tour in Iraq was the heat.
“During the summertime, you were just constantly covered in sweat,” he said. “Never before have I experienced such heat.”

While deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from February 2005 through February 2006, Terpilowski kept in touch with family back home through e-mail and used the little free time he had to take college classes online.

Now that Terpilowski has returned to Camp Lejeune, he is looking forward to the next leg of his lifelong journey. Although he has yet to decide whether he’ll make a career of the Marine Corps, he is certain about what he intends to achieve.

“Regardless of what I do, I want to finish school and get my (Bachelor of Arts) and hopefully that will help me when I get out,” Terpilowski said.