For all of you asking questions about the Reserves & College

[Vulture6]

Reserve Marines trade in books for combat boots
Submitted by: II Marine Expeditionary Force
Story Identification #: 2005225132153
Story by Capt. Julianne H. Sohn



MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Feb. 15, 2005) -- Most college students just read about Operation Iraqi Freedom in the news or study about it in class, but then there are some who take part in it as United States Marines.

Lt. Col. Donald Jim, a graduate student at Arizona State University and a detachment commander in the 5th Civil Affairs Group, is one of these students who found himself in class one moment and deploying to Iraq the next.

The 45-year-old Phoenix native is one of many reserve Marines activated to deploy for OIF 04-06. He will serve with a newly formed Marine Corps civil affairs unit, which will work with Iraqi community leaders to help rebuild infrastructure in Iraq.

“I got a phone call in about December of 2004 from the commanding officer with the Environmental Services Division based out of Marine Forces Reserve,” said Jim, who is pursuing a Masters degree in emergency management.

At the time he was activated, Jim was the commanding officer for Detachment B, Environmental Services Division, based in Phoenix.

“Two years ago I heard about this program from a friend of mine from the Phoenix Police Department,” said Jim, who is Navajo. “It was an online cohort program, but because of deployments I had to put it on hold twice.”

Prior to being activated for OIF, Jim was activated for Joint Task Force Alaskan Road last year and the year before. This pushed back his estimated date of graduation to 2007. Despite the delay, the faculty at his school was supportive.

“I went to see my professor, who is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel,” Jim said. “He was supportive and told me that when I get back that I would pick up where I left off. No penalties.”

Not only was his school supportive, but his family and friends were as well. The Marine, who is married and has two children, has a rich military history.

“I’m a third-generation Marine,” Jim said. “My father is a retired master gunnery sergeant and my great uncle was also in the Marine Corps. He was a member of the Towering House Clan. He was a code talker.”

Jim is also not the only Arizona Marine who left school to join the 5th Civil Affairs Group. Two Marines from Detachment B, ESD, are also going to Iraq.

Sgt. Josh Macey, 28, from Flagstaff, and Staff Sgt. David J. Altmanshofer, 33, from Arondale, are also deploying. Both will be putting their environmental specialist skills to work with the civil affairs unit.

Macey, a junior at Northern Arizona University, found out a week after Thanksgiving right around finals, but didn’t tell his friends or school immediately.

“I kind of kept it a secret,” said Macey. “The school I go to is very liberal, but there were some antiwar protests.”

The environmental science major finally told a friend and soon most people knew that he was leaving.

“One of my professors came up to me and wished me good luck,” Macey said. “Some people were even giving me cards. It was something I didn’t expect.”

But the hardest person for Macey to tell was his wife, Kristen, 28, who is a veterinarian. When she came home from work, the Marine asked her to sit down and broke the news.

“Before we got married, she knew I was a Marine,” he said. “I asked her, ‘you have to be okay with that’ and she was. She understands and anyone who is married to a Marine understands what we do and what the possibilities are.”

At first Kristen cried, but later she was more surprised that it took so long for Macey to get activated considering she was expecting him to get called up after Sept. 11.

Altmanshofer, a senior in business management at the University of Phoenix, also was concerned about telling his fiancée and mother.

“They totally supported me,” Altmanshofer said. “They were kind of surprised at the short notice and they had the attitude that they would take it as it comes.”

The Arondale native only has two classes left to complete his degree and then he is considering going onto a MBA. He was also working with Honeywell in the aviation industry. Both his school and work were very supportive although he did have to allay one of his classmate’s fears.

“I told her, ‘there is nothing to worry about,’” Altmanshofer said. “’Sure it will be dangerous, it’s a matter of just taking care of yourself and working through your training and everything will be fine. And I will see everyone when I get back.’”

[USMCRET6391]

you should make this a sticky someplace on the forums ROMS, Vulture. This topic gets addressed quite a bit.

[cincymarsdad]

One Dad's experience:

My son, Chris, was accepted into the Honor's program at Ohio State. He also joined the Corp and completed PI 2 September and then did SOI in October/November, 2004. The plan was to start college in January. His unit was activated and spent 45 days at 29 Palms in intensive training - Chris said parts were tougher than SOI which he said was WAY tougher than boot camp - more like he though USMC training would be. His reserve unit - and he - are now in Iraq, somewhere, just deployed and haven't heard from him. He now should start college January 2006. His unit is currently scheduled to be reactivated in 2007, so his college will take a bit of time.

I kid him he may end up saluting his sister 2 years his junior who wants to be a Marine via the ROTC route. But I also think all this "gruntwork" will make him a much better officer when that time comes and I KNOW that it has made him a MUCH more mature and solid person. He's an 0311 SAW gunner pfc in his unit.

Per the above, folks considering the reserves should understand the possibilities. My son's reserve unit had not been activated and sent overseas since the Viet Nam era so this is "unusual", as are our times.

[SpongeJuan]

If he's a machine gunner and uses the SAW, wouldn't that make him an 0331? Am I right or wrong?

[cincymarsdad]

Apparently, SAW gunners are 0311c's. They are part of a 4-5 man fire team. He also carries an M16, though in reality he says the corpman carries it for him because of the weight he lugs around - about 90 lbs. The SAW is a single person weapon.

At SOI, the guy tasked with the SAW fell out on a hump and my son picked it up and carried from then on ... he liked it and I rather like that position for him versus point etc.

As I understand it, the 0331 machine gunners are separate from the fire teams, though of course integral at the platoon level. My son had training on the ma deuce and the M-60 also, but more orientation than real training.

I'm still waiting for some word from him.

[Vulture6]

The SAW gunner is an 0311. While the M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) is technically a light machinegun, it is not a crew served weapon and fulfills the role of the automatic rifle. Typically, a SAW is employed from its bipods. Although it can be mounted on a tripod with a pintle and a T&E, that is rare. Every Marine in a rifle platoon is trained on how to operate the SAW. I've never heard of a SAW gunner being issued an M-16 as well as his SAW -- that's like being issued two M-16s.

0331 is the MOS designator for a machinegunner, and these Marines employ crew served machineguns like the M240 medium machinegun, the M-2 .50 caliber heavy machinegun and the Mk-19 40mm grenade launcher

[cincymarsdad]

Thanks for the clarity. My son said they were somehow supposed to carry the M-16 also, but few SAW gunners did. We talked about whether it would make more sense for them to carry the Beretta 9 mm as an emergency sidearm if that were needed. He liked the idea but he likes handguns. He did say the corpman carried his M-16; I didn't ask if that meant he carried two weapons himself (?).

I'm learning these minute details myself but I'm obviously interested in trying to have some glimmer of an understanding of what he's going through. He told me that in his young opinion that his unit was "very well trained and the insurgents should not mess with us...".

If they had us old men fight instead of our kids, wars would end a lot sooner ...

[SpongeJuan]

It's not really who is fighting the war that is making this one take longer than expected, it's the fact that the media is trying to make this seem like it's a game that they can play. We all just follow the orders that are given, as you all did when you were our age.

[Vulture6]

I think that only the media and the uninformed thought that this one wouldn't take a long time. I know I heard the President, SecDef and several others right up front state that this was going to take a while.

When you consider what needs to be done, and compare it to history, well, we're just getting started.

[cincymarsdad]

Certainly agree - I was being glib.

I think of the "media" as a kind of entertainment operation. The real "news" is generally nowhere near as sensational as they need for viewership. Providing the context needed to understand a particular story and providing the TIME needed to get the facts is something for which our media are not inclined.

Rush to judgment and never revisit the story when the apparent facts are assembled, making the "message" far less salacious. Near as I can tell from the news, our military is some interesting combination of trigger happy, poorly led, drug addicted, undertrained and equipped folks from the underclass being sacrificed for the Military Industrial Complex and Big Oil ... any story consistent with that gets time and any story that isn't gets no time.