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thedrifter
10-07-05, 06:35 AM
Mississippi man makes home in Marines
II Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD)
Story by Cpl. Ruben D. Maestre

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Oct. 7, 2005) -- He grew up in the Deep South, in small-town Mississippi playing baseball for his high school in the spring and hunting in the fall.

Yet, the search of a better life and an eagerness to see more brought Lance Cpl. James Scott into the Marine Corps.

“I saw my life fading away with what I was doing,” he said with a slight southern accent about being dependent on unsteady work. “I wanted to be independent.”

Raised near rural Raleigh, Miss., since the age of 12, Scott enjoyed the country. After his grandparents passed away, his parents took over the family farm carrying on with farming and living off the land.

“We grew most of our [food] on the farm,” said the trained postal clerk with a grin. “Learned to drive the tractor [when he was young] and lived the farm life most of my life.”

Scott was one of 32 seniors graduating from Raleigh High School in 1998. The 18-year-old could have settled down and worked in the local agricultural and timber industries nearby, but Scott grew restless. He became financially dependent on his father, and his wife had a miscarriage.

Wanting to get back on his feet, Scott joined the Marine Corps in January 2004.

“Go for the best to be the best; everyone wants to be a Marine,” said the 25-year-old with pride as to why he aimed for the smallest branch in the U.S. military. “I went to the Marine Corps because I thought I had what it took to be a Marine.”

Despite some minor setbacks he experienced at boot camp, Scott knew that it was up to him to succeed in life and in the Marines.

“I struggled with pneumonia and I got really sick because of the cold temperature,” he said of the cold weather at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C., during the winter. “It was up to me whether I wanted to make it or not.”

With hard work and perseverance Scott accomplished in passing the rigors of boot camp and looked forward to being in the operating forces.

“I got into the fleet and I loved it,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to trade it for anything in the world.”

Since August, Scott has been assigned to Camp Fallujah Post Office, Service Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, 2nd Force Service Support Group (FWD). His day-to-day duties consist of processing outgoing and incoming mail at the post office. When Marines engaging in operations outside the camp cannot deliver their mail, Scott helps out in setting up a makeshift post office in the field.

With hard work and a laid back demeanor, Scott does well around those he works with in the military postal service.

“He’s from the country so we mess with him a little about it,” said Sgt. Randy R. Blanche, 27, of Brooklyn, N.Y., assistant postal chief, Headquarters and Service Battalion, with a smile. “That said; work-wise he’s mature and learning more every day.”

Less than two years in the Corps, Scott is already considering staying in for the long haul. He is considering serving twenty years until retirement.

“You deal with [starting entry level]…but you adapt to it and try to make the best out of your career,” said Scott. “It’s all dependent of what you make of yourself.”

Ellie

yellowwing
10-07-05, 09:02 AM
I met a Corporal from Kentucky that had a drawl straight out of Andy Griffith. He said he grew up on a horse farm, and the lucky SOB got assigned as the NCOIC of the Special Service's horse farm in El Toro.

He showed me this really intelligent gray gelding that he could 'talk' to. No sh*t!

He would ask the gelding, "Are you a smart horse?" And the horse would vigorously nod his head up and down.

Then he asked, "Are you better than any horse out here?" And again the horse would nod his head.

Finally he asked the gelding, "Hey big boy, what happened to your nuts?" And the horse just turned his head and looked away!

"He don't want to talk about that." :banana: