Photo By Cpl. An-Nas Parkmond | Anthony Rodriques, an administrative separation chief with Separation and Retirements,...... read more read more
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. – They say that once you’re a Marine, you are a Marine for life. No matter how long you stay in active service, the Marine Corps will always have a special place in your heart and a home to come back to.
Anthony Augustus Rodriques, an administrative separation chief with Separation and Retirements, has been recognized as the Manpower Management, is Manpower Management’s Junior Civilian of the Year. Mr. Rodriques served in the Marine Corps for 22 years as an artilleryman and retired as an administrative specialist. As a civilian, he has been working as an administrative separation chief for over 8 months and is planning to make a career out of the job.
Rodriques is a Kingston, Jamaica, native, who came to the U.S. when he was 7 years old with his grandmother, and father. His family settled in Brooklyn, New York for a better life. In 1997, Rodriques walked into a recruiter’s office with no prior knowledge of the Marine Corps ways or traditions where he told the recruiter to sign him up.
“One of the main points for when I joined the Marine Corps was for educational benefits and financial security,” Rodriques said. “I didn’t want to rely on my grandmother to assist me to go to college.”
Rodriques joined the Marine Corps where he started out as a field artilleryman.
While on active duty as a field artilleryman, Rodriques was stationed was at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and deployed to Japan, Afghanistan, Panama, and several locations stateside while on a Unit Deployment Program.
After his first term of enlistment, he switched from active duty to active reserve where he served his remaining years of his career as an administrative specialist.
Rodriques got out of the Marine Corps after his first term of obligated active service. 16 months later, he decided to return to the Marine Corps and went on to serve a total of 22 years.
“I contacted a prior service recruiter, he got me a job on the Active Reserve Program, then I changed my MOS and came back in,” said Rodriques.
During his career as an administrative specialist, he served various roles such as a Career Planner, Unit Victim Advocate (UVA), and Substance Abuse Control Officer (SACO).
“At the time I had a family,” Rodriques said. “My wife was pregnant with our first son. I figured if I was going to stay, I might as well stay all the way and get a career out of it.” Rodriques has 4 children with his wife, Khulile.
In the month of September 2019, Rodriques retired in Quantico, Virginia as a Gunnery Sergeant.
While his time wearing the uniform has come to an end, his time spent working with Marines was not done there. Rodriques was later offered a GS job as a Temporary Disabled Retired List (TDRL) coordinator where he filled out the proper information for all servicemembers getting medically separated. Recently as of August 2023, Rodriques was offered a new billet working as an administrative separation chief, where he types out paperwork for all Marines that are being administratively separated, discharged, or retiring.
With Rodriques working amongst Marines and having the experience of being a Marine, he wanted to guide young Marines in the right direction in their careers.
“I know how it feels to have bad admin and good admin.” said Rodriques. “I wanted to be productive. All the knowledge and experience I have; I would be able to guide Marines in the correct career path.”
Rodriques has only spent 8 months as an administrative separation chief and was already nominated the winner of the Manpower Management Division Junior Civilian of the Year. His supervisor, Carl Johnson, lead Human Resources Specialist of the Enlisted Active-Duty Separation and Retirement Section, says he is more than deserving to be selected for this award.
“He basically ‘took the bull by the horns’,” said Johnson. “When you have a person that actually has that ‘Make it Happen’ and do it to the best of their ability, that creates a culture. His enthusiasm, his knowledge, and so-forth creates a culture for our entire section.”
Frances Burt, an associate director with the Civilian Workforce Management Branch at Manpower & Reserve Affairs explains that adding an awards program can help publicize the exposure and recognition of civilian employees, formally and informally, Corps-wide.
“Letting supervisors know what awards are available,” said Burt. "Such as Special Act Awards, Time Off Awards, and Letters of Commendation or Appreciation – might result in an increase in awards given.”
Recognizing the civilian employees in the Marine Corps is just as important in improving morale as for the Marine Corps itself. “I believe recognizing employees throughout the year based on their achievements is an important way of motivating and retaining talented employees.” Burt said. She speaks on how important it is to recognize the civilian employees for their contributions to the work environment.
“Receiving an award makes an employee feel more valued and lets the employee know that you, the supervisor or manager, notices and appreciates the work the employee is doing,” said Burt. “Too often, we wait until the end of a performance year, or right before an employee retires, to recognize employees for their contributions. While end of performance year recognition is good, we don’t want to forget about recognition throughout the year.”
Throughout Rodriques’ career from his enlistment career to his civilian career, he says his experience has been nothing but positive, and plans to make his current job another long-term career.
“I’m happy with my career and where I’m at right now.” said Rodriques. “I don’t want to be a GS-8 forever, at some point I want to be a GS-14, do another 15-20 years on the GS side and complete my career and retire again.”
| Date Taken: | 04.08.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 05.30.2024 08:52 |
| Story ID: | 469553 |
| Location: | QUANTICO, VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | KINGSTON, JM |
| Hometown: | BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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