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thedrifter
02-28-03, 06:22 AM
Leaders of the Corps
By PETER WILLIAMS
FREEDOM ENC
CAMP FOX, Kuwait — In the middle of the desert, they stood on top of a concrete and steel bunker, looked straight ahead and smiled for a photographer. They are 37 men and women, but combined they represent hundreds and hundreds of years of military experience. They are warrant officers.



The picture was the idea of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Allen Mayfield. He’s been in the service for 21 years total, 18 on active duty. He wanted a photo to capture all the warrant officers at Camp Fox, including some from the nearby British Army camp.



Warrant officers wear collar devices with stripes of red, black or brown. They reach their rank by having a technical expertise that is prized by the military and the maturity to know what to do with it.



“When you are selected for the warrant officer program, you go to The Basic School in Quantico (Va.) and the average person there has 13 years experience,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mark Valdov. “But I’d say in this group, you’ve got a lot more than that.”



For example, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Dusty Cooper has 27 years in the Marine Corps.



“As a CWO-5 I would like to think I am in a leadership role for all the warrant officers and a mentor,” Cooper said. “It’s my position to tell them when they’re doing the right thing and to tell them when they’re doing the wrong thing as well. I don’t have to tell them most of the times when they are doing wrong. That’s because some of the brightest, most aggressive, most professional Marines I know are warrant officers.”



Cooper, a native of Weber Falls, Okla., was in Desert Storm with a tank battalion. Now he’s with a maintenance battalion and closing out his career.



“I have three more years, and then I have to go. When they tell me I have to go home, I will go home and I will enjoy my family ... every minute of it.



“I have a 15-year-old son back in Jacksonville. He’s a good boy. He actually took this deployment in a more mature manner than I would have. He and I sat down in the garage and had a long conversation. I told him what my job as a Marine was and what America’s position was in the world. He understood and, shockingly, he announced that should the draft come back, he’d stand in line and join. Like I said, he’s a good boy.



“The thing, is some of America’s brightest are at Camp Fox. I have no second-guessing of America’s youth because these kids are awesome. They work and work and work They may ***** and they may complain, but when the bugle calls, every one of them is running out of their hootch with a gas mask and a weapon. I am very very proud of them.”



EDITOR’S NOTE: Peter Williams is a correspondent for Freedom ENC and editor of the Liberty. An archive of his stories from Kuwait is available at www.jdnews.com


Sempers,

Roger