Photo By Sgt. John Baker | U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle L. Keever, a motor transport maintenance technician from...... read more read more
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The U.S. Marine Corps trains young men and women to succeed in highly-technical job fields, regardless of their prior experience. Many Marines serve honorably in military occupational specialties they never thought they’d end up enjoying—and others join to contribute their love of a trade to the service of the nation.
Lance Cpl. Kyle Keever, a motor transport maintenance technician from Central Point, Oregon, falls into the latter category.
Keever is deployed with Marine Wing Support Squadron 371, Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force - Crisis Response - Central Command, in Southwest Asia. He is one of several motor transportation mechanics with the unit who maintain and repair the large diesel vehicles in the Marine Corps’ inventory.
Keever ‘s been working on engines for years, since he was first introduced to the trade by his father—at six years old.
“My father owned a shop and I went to work with him every day,” said Keever. “I started with changing oil and sweeping the shop.”
His father gave him more challenging tasks as he got older and gained experience.
“We had junk motors outside and he would just tell me, ‘go take that apart,’” said Keever. “I started actually being able to work on customers’ cars later on and then got into diagnostics.”
Keever said he knew by his mid-teens he wanted to be a career mechanic. He started buying his own tools, one-by-one, until his investment reached nearly $30,000.
He worked for his father until he obtained the required licensing and decided it was time to gain more experience by working for other repair shops. He worked for three other garages before graduating high school, making solid professional connections along the way.
One of his graduation requirements was an internship he needed to complete with a new repair shop.
“For my senior internship, they told me I had to work somewhere new,” said Keever. “So I went to work at American Tractor, and when school ended they told me they wanted to hire me on full time.”
He took up the offer and started earning a generous paycheck. Something else was nagging at him, though; he knew he wanted to earn something more.
A local recruiter from Recruiting Sub-Station Medford, Marine Recruiting Station Portland, started working with Keever to find a way for him to serve in uniform without abandoning the professional progress he’d made within the automotive industry. Keever said he’d always been patriotic and always had an itch to serve.
“I made a lot more money before I joined the Marine Corps,” said Keever. “But I just wanted to serve my country.”
Keever was eager to prove himself as a Marine, but really wanted to stay in the same job field that he had grown to love.
“This was the only job I wanted to take,” said Keever. “My contract was going to be either heavy equipment or motor transport mechanic. Either way I would have been happy.”
Keever explained how the transition from working on commercial equipment to military equipment was easy. He said a lot of the engines used in military equipment are the same ones used by industrial equipment.
“A lot of the engines are exactly the same as what I’ve worked on as a civilian,” said Keever. “Some of them are actually way easier to work on.”
Keever said he’s confident in his repair work, so he often focuses on quality control.
“Quality control is checking your work to make sure you did everything correctly before the truck goes back out on the road,” Keever said. “It helps ensure the truck won’t just break down again.”
Keever had a lot of prior experience in his field, but said new Marines are not expected to know everything.
“Anytime I don’t know something, I find out,” said Keever. “Whether I have to look it up or ask my supervisor, I find out. So far that’s gotten me quite a ways.”
The Marine Corps is committed to a culture of life-long learning, and despite all of the technical know-how one gains in military occupational specialty schools, informal peer-to-peer classes occur frequently.
“I have sergeants and corporals who aren’t afraid to ask me for advice,” said Keever. “Nobody knows everything, and there’s always something you can do to better yourself.”
Keever said his biggest struggle has been learning to share his expertise with others. He said at first he tried to do everything himself, but realized he needed to back away a bit and let other Marines use the information they’ve all learned.
“I can explain it to them, but to really learn it, they need to do it themselves,” said Keever. “I just want to get in there and do it, but they don’t learn that way. I have to pull myself back and let them figure it out.”
Keever said he understands the importance of his job and takes pride in his part of the SPMAGTF mission.
A lot of operations are over before they begin if trucks are not running at their peak, Keever said. It’s hard to move troops or their supplies unless motor transport mechanics are doing their jobs well.
Keever said he doesn’t intend to stay in the Marine Corps beyond his initial enlistment. He just wanted to serve his country. After his contract is up he plans on taking full advantage of the educational benefits afforded by the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
“After the Marine Corps I’m definitely going to go to college,” said Keever. “I’d like to go to University of Western Ohio and get a degree in performance engine building.”
Keever is well on his way to achieving all he’s set out to accomplish, and can soon check a deployment to the Middle East off his list.
| Date Taken: | 06.01.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 06.10.2015 09:36 |
| Story ID: | 166062 |
| Location: | (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION) |
| Web Views: | 259 |
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