Photo By Cpl. Colby Brown | Master Gunnery Sgt. David Bryan poses for a picture here, Oct. 24. Bryan, a native of...... read more read more
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GARMSIR DISTRICT, Helmand province, Afghanistan — As I sat listening to Master Gunnery Sgt. David Bryan, a man almost twice my age, describe his experience in the Marine Corps, I was hit with an epiphany.
Being a Marine is a lifestyle, not a career choice.
“It’s a way of life that only a small percentage of America understands,” said the 45 year-old, Terre Hill, Pa., native. “To be a United States Marine is probably one of the most notable professions in the world because of that.”
This view was new to me, but Bryan has approached his work this way for years.
He has been a Marine for 25 years and joined the Corps before I was born. Bryan’s time spent in combat zones is longer than my entire Marine Corps career. He has been involved in the four major military operations of the last two decades – Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
“I had this perception when I came into the Marine Corps that I was going to be an infantryman and it kind of carried on,” Bryan said. “The recruiters asked me ‘what do you want to do’ and I answered ‘what do you mean what do I want to do?’ I wanted to be a Marine, to be in the dirt, to shoot guns, to hike around kicking ass and taking names. That’s what I joined for.”
And Bryan has done just that.
Bryan has been stationed at every major base in the Marine Corps and served with nine different units. He has served in over 30 countries, leading literally lead thousands of Marines during his career.
Though Bryan has held nearly every infantry billet the Corps has to offer, from rifleman to operations chief, he considers his years as a drill instructor the most rewarding of his career.
As he described his time on the drill field, my view of the Marine lifestyle evolved. I never truly understood its meaning until Bryan explained the feeling a drill instructor gets when a new platoon of recruits steps on the yellow footprints ‘to be molded into Marines.’
“I loved being a drill instructor,” Bryan said. “I got to see the transition from a civilian to a young, molded Marine. I have had a recruit that cut 40 pounds and his mom walked right by him on graduation day. She didn’t even know it was him.”
“You go to boot camp and you get that speech from the senior drill instructor,” Bryan added. “Marines don’t lie, cheat, steal or compromise and the change starts from there. The camaraderie, traits, principles and the leadership you learn throughout your time in the Marine Corps are the things the mean the most to me as a Marine.“
The Strongest Brotherhood
No other military organization immerses recruits so fully in its culture. The rigors of boot camp form the basis of the Marine brotherhood.
For many, bonds formed during recruit training extend to their professional relationships.
You leave work with the same guy you meet at the bar for drinks. You deploy with the same guys who bought your children birthday presents. Bryan says he can call Marines from units he was in a decade ago and they still share the same bond.
“We’re a smaller, tight knit group,” Bryan said. “I cherish things a little more than I was younger. Because pretty soon… all I’m going to have are memories.”
Bryan has never experienced a moment of regret over his 24-year career. He knows, more than most, the idiosyncrasies of the Marine Corps. For him it’s just a way of life.
“I have done this my whole life,” Bryan said. “I have been in the Marines longer than I have done anything else. The first 20 years of my life was school, but the last 25 years, the Corps is all I have been doing.”
“I joined to get away form the same old stuff back home,” he added. “When I do go home the people I know are still doing the same jobs in the same town.”
Try as he might, Bryan can’t help but imagine what his life may have been like as a civilian.
“I went to 25-year reunion for my high school, and I’m not being judgmental, but they were all fat,” Bryan said. “And I don’t know if I would be any different than them if I wouldn’t have joined. My body is broke from hiking… but I’m in better shape that the average civilian at age 45. And I have much more discipline.”
Bryan could sit for hours and tell stories of his life as a Marine. The stories continue to pile up as he nears the end of his eleventh deployment.
Bryan says this deployment is no different than his fifth or his first. Whether deployed as a master gunnery sergeant or a lance corporal, a Marine is still away from home and potentially in harm’s way.
“When I see that [junior ranked] mortar man out on the gun line hating life, I try to go talk to him,” Bryan said. “And when I walk out there, he is thinking ‘great, he is gonna tell me some war story that he has done this, he has done that,’… and in reality I have because I am a mortarman by trade. I have been there before.”
A Corps Family
For nearly his entire career in the Corps, Bryan’s family has been along for the ride. His wife has shared the hardships of almost all of his deployments.
Though the constant cycle of being away from his family is difficult, Bryan says it has only strengthened their relationship. After 20 years of marriage, all as a Marine, Bryan is nothing if not grateful for his family.
“I love her and she loves me and she puts up with [me],” Bryan said of his wife. “We have our issues, which the majority of the times are when I am gone because when I leave she has a lot to do. Military spouses are mom and dad. They have to be a mentor and a friend. They have to be a housewife and then if they have their own career, which my wife does, a marine biologist, she is going in a thousand directions doing a thousand different things.”
Bryan’s family is one of the main reasons he stayed in for so long.
The Corps has provided structure and stability for the Bryan family. The master gunnery sergeant also views his lengthy career as a way to prevent his two sons, nine and 19 years old, from having to join the fight.
“I like the organization of knowing and the planning of things, there is a schedule,” Bryan said. “Even though we may not like it there is one. We know it is coming. You can count on the Marine Corps to have that structure.”
Over the years, Bryan has learned to separate his professional life from his life at home.
“I try to go home and I try to be Dave and dad,” Bryan added. “I don’t want to go home and be master guns.”
Once a Marine, Always a Marine
As he considers another reenlistment, Bryan finds himself contemplating retirement from his beloved Corps.
Marines often find the transition to civilian life to be difficult. It’s a change that involves more than trading cammies for business casual attire.
“The language is different,” Bryan said. “If I go into a business in suit and tie and say, ‘hold the hatch’ or while walking down the hall yell ‘gangway,’ people won’t exactly understand what I mean. It’s just one of those things.”
The decision to re-enlist will ultimately be made with his family.
“That’s a tough question,” Bryan said. “When I get back, my wife and I are going to sit down and talk and discuss whether I stay in or get out. It’s getting to be that time in my career when the decisions I make will affect the rest of my life.”
Once you don the Eagle, Globe and Anchor, you become a different person. The discipline and values instilled from the first day of boot camp remain with a Marine for the rest of his life, whether or not he wears the uniform.
Whatever his final decision may be, Bryan knows there is truth to the old axiom, “once a Marine, always a Marine.”
Editor’s note: First Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, is currently assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, 2nd Marine Division (Forward), which heads Task Force Leatherneck. The task force serves as the ground combat element of Regional Command (Southwest) and works in partnership with the Afghanistan National Security Forces and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to conduct counterinsurgency operations. The unit is dedicated to securing the Afghan people, defeating insurgent forces, and enabling the ANSF assumption of security responsibilities within its operations in order to support the expansion of stability, development and legitimate governance.
| Date Taken: | 10.24.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 10.25.2011 11:50 |
| Story ID: | 78982 |
| Location: | GARMSIR DISTRICT, HELMAND PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 2,782 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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