thedrifter
03-06-07, 07:20 AM
1st MLG gets new sergeant major
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 6, 2007 6:09:02 EST
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – Marines and sailors of the 1st Marine Logistics Group got a new senior enlisted leader March 1 with the retirement of Sgt. Maj. Dan L. Hakala.
On March 2, Hakala, 49, one of the Corps’ veteran reconnaissance men, handed over the unit colors to Sgt. Maj. Steven J. Lara, most recently the inspector and instructor for 23rd Marine Regiment.
Hakala, a Butte, Mont., native known as “Hack” to friends and colleagues, will end a 31-year career when his retirement officially begins Sept. 1.
During the ceremony outside the group headquarters at Camp Pendleton, Brig. Gen. David G. Reist, who commands the 1st MLG, honored Hakala and his wife, Andrea, for their service and dedication. As their two children looked on, Hakala thanked his mother, who emigrated from her native Sweden, “for giving me a foundation of integrity and loyalty.”
Joining the Marine Corps after high school in San Leandro, Calif., Hakala left the service after his initial enlistment to work as a coal miner and an amateur boxer. Just over a year later, he re-enlisted in the Corps and joined 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, and over the years, he attended many of the community’s top schools and courses. During an assignment as a project officer with Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va., he was one of the first Marines to qualify on the MC-5 parachute for high-altitude, high-opening operations. He later served as the Basic Reconnaissance Course’s chief instructor at Expeditionary Warfare Training Group-Pacific in Coronado, Calif.
Hakala deployed to Iraq in 2004 with Combat Service Support Group 11 and, in 2005, assumed the post as the sergeant major of Combat Logistics Regiment 1. He served as the 1st MLG’s top enlisted leader since January 2006.
Hakala’s and Lara’s paths crossed in the early 1990s at Camp Pendleton, where they were both staff noncommissioned officers assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.
Lara, 45, a native of Coolidge, Ariz., was the battalion sergeant major for 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, and Battalion Landing Team 1/1 with the Camp Pendleton-based 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and he deployed with the unit into Afghanistan in late 2001.
In March 2002, Lara became the sergeant major of 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, and he deployed to Iraq in 2003 with the unit. Later that year, he was assigned as 11th Marine Regiment’s regimental sergeant major before joining 23rd Marines’ I-I staff in September 2004.
Ellie
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 6, 2007 6:09:02 EST
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – Marines and sailors of the 1st Marine Logistics Group got a new senior enlisted leader March 1 with the retirement of Sgt. Maj. Dan L. Hakala.
On March 2, Hakala, 49, one of the Corps’ veteran reconnaissance men, handed over the unit colors to Sgt. Maj. Steven J. Lara, most recently the inspector and instructor for 23rd Marine Regiment.
Hakala, a Butte, Mont., native known as “Hack” to friends and colleagues, will end a 31-year career when his retirement officially begins Sept. 1.
During the ceremony outside the group headquarters at Camp Pendleton, Brig. Gen. David G. Reist, who commands the 1st MLG, honored Hakala and his wife, Andrea, for their service and dedication. As their two children looked on, Hakala thanked his mother, who emigrated from her native Sweden, “for giving me a foundation of integrity and loyalty.”
Joining the Marine Corps after high school in San Leandro, Calif., Hakala left the service after his initial enlistment to work as a coal miner and an amateur boxer. Just over a year later, he re-enlisted in the Corps and joined 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, and over the years, he attended many of the community’s top schools and courses. During an assignment as a project officer with Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va., he was one of the first Marines to qualify on the MC-5 parachute for high-altitude, high-opening operations. He later served as the Basic Reconnaissance Course’s chief instructor at Expeditionary Warfare Training Group-Pacific in Coronado, Calif.
Hakala deployed to Iraq in 2004 with Combat Service Support Group 11 and, in 2005, assumed the post as the sergeant major of Combat Logistics Regiment 1. He served as the 1st MLG’s top enlisted leader since January 2006.
Hakala’s and Lara’s paths crossed in the early 1990s at Camp Pendleton, where they were both staff noncommissioned officers assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.
Lara, 45, a native of Coolidge, Ariz., was the battalion sergeant major for 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, and Battalion Landing Team 1/1 with the Camp Pendleton-based 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and he deployed with the unit into Afghanistan in late 2001.
In March 2002, Lara became the sergeant major of 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, and he deployed to Iraq in 2003 with the unit. Later that year, he was assigned as 11th Marine Regiment’s regimental sergeant major before joining 23rd Marines’ I-I staff in September 2004.
Ellie