Photo By Lance Cpl. Joshua Sechser | EAST CHINA SEA (April 18, 2020) Sgt. Kayla Bear, a heavy equipment chief and a native...... read more read more
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EAST CHINA SEA -- The Marine Corps prides itself on enabling its non-commissioned officers to lead their Marines by example. Sgt. Kayla M. Bear, a heavy equipment chief with Combat Logistics Battalion (CLB) 31, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), lives by that creed every day.
Bear, a native of Newark, Ohio, stated that working in an engineer unit presents Marines with complicated problems, often requiring the Marines within the field to think outside of the box.
“We have to use that creative part of our brains pretty often as an engineer unit,” Bear said. “The coolest part of being a sergeant is that I still get the chance to work closely with the Marines and help them work problems.”
Bear graduated from Newark High School in 2012 before enlisting into the Marine Corps through Recruiting Station Newark later that year. Remembering her family in the U.S. has helped Bear to stay motivated to work and train throughout her nearly 8 years of active duty service in the Corps.
“My siblings are my biggest fans,” Bear said. “They’ve been with me through all of this, coming to every graduation, every ceremony to cheer me on. The Marine Corps has given me a bunch more brothers and sisters.”
After graduating Basic Recruit Training and Marine Combat Training, she reported to Courthouse Bay Engineering School on Camp Lejeune for training as a combat engineer. Bear has always felt a desire to overcome challenges, and has strived to rise to the challenges the Marine Corps presented her throughout her career.
“I didn’t want anyone to be able talk down to me… only a select amount of people can make it in this branch and an even more select few females get this opportunity,” Bear said. “I didn’t want a soft job. I like working in the dirt and working hard. I’m glad my recruiter was able to get me into this field.”
Bear was one of the first females to graduate from Marine combat engineer training during the Marine Corps’ transition to allowing females in combat occupational specialties. Bear was promoted to corporal in 2014, and in 2016 while serving with 9th Engineering Support Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, she was recognized as the first female Marine to become non-commissioned officer (NCO) combat engineer of the year.
It was these early experiences as an NCO that Bear feels helped shape her into the leader she is today.
“As a corporal early on filling a sergeant’s billet in our platoon, I didn’t really know what was going on and so I would stay up late at night studying and trying to gain more knowledge to better myself,” said Bear.
When it comes to mentoring her junior Marines, Bear strongly recommends Marines grow through the knowledge and example of those who came before them, whether that’s through advice from NCOs around the unit or books and courses on the Marine lifestyle.
With a firm belief in the “total Marine concept”, Bear pushes her Marines to set goals in their work, their physical development and their personal lives.
“I see my junior Marines as younger brothers and sisters,” Bear said. “It’s definitely a pretty protective role for me as a leader. I expect a lot from my Marines and I push them pretty hard, especially when it comes to physical fitness. That hard work is what makes us more successful as a team.”
Physical training (PT) has become one of Bear’s passions as a Marine leader. In addition to being a High Intensity Tactical Training instructor for CLB-31, 31st MEU, she also attended the United States of America Olympic Weightlifting (USAW) coach’s course in Calif. in October of 2019. Using the more effective and healthier weightlifting styles of Olympic style lifting, Bear pushes her Marines to train hard.
“They want to get tougher,” Bear said. “Nothing beats working long hours with a Marine and watching them finally hit the goals they set for themselves. That smile on their face of ‘I did it, sergeant.’ is worth all the time and the effort for me.”
In the time between training exercises in Okinawa and Guam, Bear directly affected the physical strength and overall morale of the Marines and Sailors onboard the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Germantown (LSD 42). For the first half of the patrol, Bear was the senior Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) instructor onboard the Germantown. She oversaw more than 40 Marines’ belt level progression and assisted in the training of approximately 30 more Marines with Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 31st MEU.
“I had a lot of opportunities to lead PT on the Germantown, with the downtime that comes with ship life,” Bear said. “That’s why we have been able to create so much time for group HITT workouts and for MCMAP training. Marines want to learn those more complicated dynamic movements like the clean and jerk and the power clean. I get the opportunity to help them in those areas being a USAW coach and having the PT knowledge.”
In order to maintain their lethality, Marines must meet and exceed the high physical standards set for them. Many times Marines are left to their own integrity to make time for a workout or run. Bear believes the motivation to go and get a good workout in comes from your peers and from an internal drive for perfection.
“Whatever you are doing right now isn’t good enough,” Bear said. “Even if you’re perfect it’s not enough. Never get comfortable. Seek out your flaws. Seek out those things you’re not good at. Perfect everything. At the end of the day you need to be able to tell yourself ‘Good work. Now do better tomorrow.’”
Marines strive for excellence in every task, no matter how menial or insignificant. Dealing with stress and fatigue plays a large part in development as a Marine. Bear encourages her Marines to relieve some of that stress through PT.
“Marines have a lot of stress in their lives,” Bear said. “Their release a lot of times is working out. That’s how I originally got into it, and I wanted to be able to give that gift to other Marines.”
Bear believes this acts as a double-edged sword as it also increases the Marines mental and physical endurance. That toughness not only helps Marines to persevere as a fighting force in combat environments, but to persist in their everyday responsibilities.
The 31st MEU, the Marine Corps' only continuously forward-deployed MEU, provides a flexible and lethal force ready to perform a wide range of military operations as the premier crisis response force in the Indo-Pacific region.
| Date Taken: | 05.22.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 05.27.2020 20:33 |
| Story ID: | 370630 |
| Location: | EAST CHINA SEA |
| Hometown: | NEWARK, OHIO, US |
| Web Views: | 1,513 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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