thedrifter
06-24-07, 07:38 AM
Published - June, 24, 2007
'Caveman' going off to war
Troy Moon
tmoon@pnj.com
He's led them through training. He's inspired them through charisma and larger-than-life leadership. He's primed them for war.
Now, "Caveman'' is going to battle with them.
Marine Corps Col. Christopher "Caveman" Holzworth, 50, will relinquish command of Marine Aviation Training Support Group-21 to Col. Wilbert Thomas during a ceremony on Wednesday at the National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
Holzworth is heading to Iraq, where he will be the operations officer for the Second Marine Air Wing Forward. He'll be commanding many of the young Marines whom he trained at MATSG-21, which oversees nearly 8,000 Marines a year in 137 aviation fields, from piloting to mechanics.
"Those were the absolute best orders I could get after an assignment like this,'' said Holzworth, who took over MATSG-21 two years ago. "We have trained those Marines, and now I get a chance as their (operations officer) to see how that training is working."
Holzworth is itching to go where 530 of his staff and instructors already have been -- to what he calls the "sandbox.''
"That's the real litmus test -- to see if what we've done down here to improve training is saving lives. Is it making them better prepared? Are they making a better contribution than before? It's about the ethos of Marine leadership -- to not ask them to do something I wouldn't do.
"I'm training them to fight. I'm training them for combat. And at the end of the day, our enemies are going to die. I will look these Marines in the eye and tell them, 'I'll see you there.' I'm going to put my life in their hands, and they're going to put their lives in my hands.''
Holzworth, a Marine Corps helicopter pilot, participated in Operations Desert Shield/Storm in the Persian Gulf. He's twice been deployed to Bosnia, and he's been sent to Haiti.
His Marines said they are more than willing to follow him -- anywhere.
"He's a great leader we all look up to,'' said Pfc. Tyran Young, 19, who is training at MATSG-21. "He can mingle with us, and he can command us. And in battle, no problem. We all know he'll have our backs, and he knows we'll have his.''
Pvt. Joseph Fabiano, 17, also in training here, chipped in.
"He's the kind of Marine who will be the first on the battlefield. Everyone respects that.''
Holzworth got his nickname early in his Marine Corps service when he chewed out another Marine. Another officer scolded him, saying he came across like a caveman.
The nickname stuck. And his instantly recognizable voice didn't deter the new moniker.
His voice is sometimes ragged, sometimes a high-pitched squeal, sometimes wildly rambling. It's Gen. Patton's growl. At times, it's a high squeal that resembles that of Moe from "The Three Stooges.'' It's partially the voice of the classic Matt Foley character from "Saturday Night Live'' who frantically yells at youngsters to stay away from trouble or they'll end up living "in a van down by the river.''
"Yeah, I have a real intelligent-sounding voice, don't you think?'' Holzworth asked.
He said that voice is a family affair -- not a result of Marine Corps barking.
"My sisters all have a female version of this voice,'' he said. "We all talk like we've been punched in the throat or like we're out of a bad gangster movie.''
Holzworth isn't all business. He also likes to joke around a bit. Often at his own expense.
He joked that when he played linebacker for the University of Virginia football team in the late-1970s, he was small, but at least he was "incredibly slow.''
Within minutes of meeting a stranger, he confessed, "If I'm the smartest guy in the room, then we're in a lot of trouble.'' He'll say that three times in the course of an hour.
But don't believe it, not for a second.
The "Caveman'' had a double major in economics and, get this, speech, at Virginia. He received a master's degree in business from the University of Utah. Later, he earned a master's in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
"There's a lot of thinking going on in his head,'' said Holzworth's right-hand man, MATSG-21 executive officer Lt. Col. David "GMan'' Glassman. "He's a very sharp person.''
An unfulfilled life
Despite his bluster, frantic energy and straight-from-central-casting voice, Holzworth can get downright tender, especially when talking of the values that first drew him to the Marine Corps, which he hadn't even considered until he was in college.
Raised in Fort Lauderdale, Holzworth attended Virginia on a football scholarship. Later, he went to graduate school at the University of Utah.
It was in Utah that Holzworth met his fate.
"In all the things I was looking to do in my life, it all had to do with making money,'' he said. "Mostly for someone else. There wasn't anything uplifting to my contributions. I'd make a lot of people rich, including myself. But at the end of the day, no one would truly benefit from my contributions.''
A friend suggested he talk to a Marine recruiter.
Holzworth did, wearing a three-piece suit and carrying a briefcase to the interview.
"I walked in with my suit and my briefcase, and (the gunnery sergeant) said, 'All right, we might be going home early today.' I sat down, and he said all the right things about honor and commitment and courage and being involved with something bigger than yourself and contributing to the security of the nation. It wasn't about doing what's best for yourself. It was about doing something for people who truly need you.''
Holzworth was sold.
"I said 'Great, I'm in. Sign me up.' ''
Just like that.
Then, the recruiter asked another question: "By the way, would you like to fly?''
"I said, 'Do you need those?' '' Holzworth recounted. "Because all I wanted was to be a Marine.''
He soon told his father, a World War II veteran who worked as an auto executive, about his new career path.
"He said he would do everything possible to get me out of it,'' Holzworth said.
When he added that he was going to be a Marine pilot, Holzworth heard only laughter on the other end of the phone.
"Our family has a hard time relating to mechanical things,'' Holzworth said. "Getting the hood of my car to open is a challenge.''
In April 1983, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant, reporting to Naval Air Training Command in Pensacola. In 1985, Holzworth was designated as a Naval aviator.
Among his assignments, Holzworth has served as executive officer of Training Air Wing Five and commanding officer of Helicopter Training Squadron 18, both at Whiting Field in Milton. From November 2003 to June 2005, he held a top-level position at Marine headquarters in Arlington, Va. He became MATSG-21 commander in July 2005.
Not that any of this impresses his four sisters and his parents.
"My four sisters are much more accomplished, more aggressive, smarter, better in sports, than I ever was,'' he said. "I'm truly proud of them. But they think I'm a government worker, like a postman.''
The 'right thing'
But he's so much more to those he commands.
He's a larger-than-life figure whose confidence, charisma and leadership are perfectly suited to guide young, impressionable Marines.
"I support democracy, but I don't practice it,'' he said. "You have to lead. You'll never get their whole heart, their whole soul and get them to embrace the mission above even their own personal safety unless they believe in you and know it's the right thing to do.
"Sure you can order them, and even if they don't think it's the right thing to do, they'll be pros and do it. But if they know you're making decisions based on their well-being and the mission's success, and if you can inspire them, then you will get their heart and soul. Because you'll give anything for the right thing.''
For Holzworth, the "right thing'' isn't just destroying, killing and blowing things up in combat.
It's enriching and building things up back home as well.
Holzworth's Marines have worked numerous children's causes and charity events, raising thousands of dollars and contributing thousands of hours for organizations.
They helped with the landscaping at the Lacey A. Collier Sensory Complex for profoundly disabled children, with coaching and supervising the Children's Miracle League and the Special Olympics for special-needs children, with cleaning up historical cemeteries and with much more. And when there's a 5K race, big groups of Marines often run in formation, chanting all the way, as they lend athleticism and spirit.
"This is a community worth fighting for,'' Holzworth said. "And there's no better friend, and no worse enemy, than the United States Marine Corps.''
'Ooh-rah!'
Holzworth also tries to instill team-building lessons even when having fun -- and he does want his Marines to have some fun, at least a little.
After all, once the young Marines head off to Iraq and Afghanistan, fun will be in short supply.
On a recent Saturday, Holzworth inspired his troops at the MATSG Cup competition, in which the Marines divide into teams to compete in a variety of games and skills -- from softball and soccer to breaking down weapons.
Holzworth arrived at the games on the back of a Humvee, brandishing a shield with the Marine Corps symbol and wearing war feathers on his helmet.
"Here we are Marines, on the field of battle,'' Holzworth bellowed in his best Matt Foley voice. "There is no second place. Take no prisoners.''
His Marines loved it.
In fact, Holzworth spent most of the morning mingling with the troops, urging them to make the other competitors "cry like little, bitty babies, like little crybabies.''
"Ooh-rah!'' Marines responded, with the catch-all Marine phrase.
Then, Holzworth went over to the team he was just talking trash about and urged them to make the other team "cry like babies.''
"Ooh-rah!''
"He's extremely motivating,'' said Pfc. Dale Hunt, 19. "He's just charismatic.''
Later, he urged the Marines to get some hamburgers and hot dogs at the cookout, yelling wildly "that I killed that meat myself.''
A bit eccentric, maybe?
Hunt almost looked offended.
"Eccentric?'' he asked "No. This is the Marine Corps, after all.'
Ellie
'Caveman' going off to war
Troy Moon
tmoon@pnj.com
He's led them through training. He's inspired them through charisma and larger-than-life leadership. He's primed them for war.
Now, "Caveman'' is going to battle with them.
Marine Corps Col. Christopher "Caveman" Holzworth, 50, will relinquish command of Marine Aviation Training Support Group-21 to Col. Wilbert Thomas during a ceremony on Wednesday at the National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
Holzworth is heading to Iraq, where he will be the operations officer for the Second Marine Air Wing Forward. He'll be commanding many of the young Marines whom he trained at MATSG-21, which oversees nearly 8,000 Marines a year in 137 aviation fields, from piloting to mechanics.
"Those were the absolute best orders I could get after an assignment like this,'' said Holzworth, who took over MATSG-21 two years ago. "We have trained those Marines, and now I get a chance as their (operations officer) to see how that training is working."
Holzworth is itching to go where 530 of his staff and instructors already have been -- to what he calls the "sandbox.''
"That's the real litmus test -- to see if what we've done down here to improve training is saving lives. Is it making them better prepared? Are they making a better contribution than before? It's about the ethos of Marine leadership -- to not ask them to do something I wouldn't do.
"I'm training them to fight. I'm training them for combat. And at the end of the day, our enemies are going to die. I will look these Marines in the eye and tell them, 'I'll see you there.' I'm going to put my life in their hands, and they're going to put their lives in my hands.''
Holzworth, a Marine Corps helicopter pilot, participated in Operations Desert Shield/Storm in the Persian Gulf. He's twice been deployed to Bosnia, and he's been sent to Haiti.
His Marines said they are more than willing to follow him -- anywhere.
"He's a great leader we all look up to,'' said Pfc. Tyran Young, 19, who is training at MATSG-21. "He can mingle with us, and he can command us. And in battle, no problem. We all know he'll have our backs, and he knows we'll have his.''
Pvt. Joseph Fabiano, 17, also in training here, chipped in.
"He's the kind of Marine who will be the first on the battlefield. Everyone respects that.''
Holzworth got his nickname early in his Marine Corps service when he chewed out another Marine. Another officer scolded him, saying he came across like a caveman.
The nickname stuck. And his instantly recognizable voice didn't deter the new moniker.
His voice is sometimes ragged, sometimes a high-pitched squeal, sometimes wildly rambling. It's Gen. Patton's growl. At times, it's a high squeal that resembles that of Moe from "The Three Stooges.'' It's partially the voice of the classic Matt Foley character from "Saturday Night Live'' who frantically yells at youngsters to stay away from trouble or they'll end up living "in a van down by the river.''
"Yeah, I have a real intelligent-sounding voice, don't you think?'' Holzworth asked.
He said that voice is a family affair -- not a result of Marine Corps barking.
"My sisters all have a female version of this voice,'' he said. "We all talk like we've been punched in the throat or like we're out of a bad gangster movie.''
Holzworth isn't all business. He also likes to joke around a bit. Often at his own expense.
He joked that when he played linebacker for the University of Virginia football team in the late-1970s, he was small, but at least he was "incredibly slow.''
Within minutes of meeting a stranger, he confessed, "If I'm the smartest guy in the room, then we're in a lot of trouble.'' He'll say that three times in the course of an hour.
But don't believe it, not for a second.
The "Caveman'' had a double major in economics and, get this, speech, at Virginia. He received a master's degree in business from the University of Utah. Later, he earned a master's in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
"There's a lot of thinking going on in his head,'' said Holzworth's right-hand man, MATSG-21 executive officer Lt. Col. David "GMan'' Glassman. "He's a very sharp person.''
An unfulfilled life
Despite his bluster, frantic energy and straight-from-central-casting voice, Holzworth can get downright tender, especially when talking of the values that first drew him to the Marine Corps, which he hadn't even considered until he was in college.
Raised in Fort Lauderdale, Holzworth attended Virginia on a football scholarship. Later, he went to graduate school at the University of Utah.
It was in Utah that Holzworth met his fate.
"In all the things I was looking to do in my life, it all had to do with making money,'' he said. "Mostly for someone else. There wasn't anything uplifting to my contributions. I'd make a lot of people rich, including myself. But at the end of the day, no one would truly benefit from my contributions.''
A friend suggested he talk to a Marine recruiter.
Holzworth did, wearing a three-piece suit and carrying a briefcase to the interview.
"I walked in with my suit and my briefcase, and (the gunnery sergeant) said, 'All right, we might be going home early today.' I sat down, and he said all the right things about honor and commitment and courage and being involved with something bigger than yourself and contributing to the security of the nation. It wasn't about doing what's best for yourself. It was about doing something for people who truly need you.''
Holzworth was sold.
"I said 'Great, I'm in. Sign me up.' ''
Just like that.
Then, the recruiter asked another question: "By the way, would you like to fly?''
"I said, 'Do you need those?' '' Holzworth recounted. "Because all I wanted was to be a Marine.''
He soon told his father, a World War II veteran who worked as an auto executive, about his new career path.
"He said he would do everything possible to get me out of it,'' Holzworth said.
When he added that he was going to be a Marine pilot, Holzworth heard only laughter on the other end of the phone.
"Our family has a hard time relating to mechanical things,'' Holzworth said. "Getting the hood of my car to open is a challenge.''
In April 1983, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant, reporting to Naval Air Training Command in Pensacola. In 1985, Holzworth was designated as a Naval aviator.
Among his assignments, Holzworth has served as executive officer of Training Air Wing Five and commanding officer of Helicopter Training Squadron 18, both at Whiting Field in Milton. From November 2003 to June 2005, he held a top-level position at Marine headquarters in Arlington, Va. He became MATSG-21 commander in July 2005.
Not that any of this impresses his four sisters and his parents.
"My four sisters are much more accomplished, more aggressive, smarter, better in sports, than I ever was,'' he said. "I'm truly proud of them. But they think I'm a government worker, like a postman.''
The 'right thing'
But he's so much more to those he commands.
He's a larger-than-life figure whose confidence, charisma and leadership are perfectly suited to guide young, impressionable Marines.
"I support democracy, but I don't practice it,'' he said. "You have to lead. You'll never get their whole heart, their whole soul and get them to embrace the mission above even their own personal safety unless they believe in you and know it's the right thing to do.
"Sure you can order them, and even if they don't think it's the right thing to do, they'll be pros and do it. But if they know you're making decisions based on their well-being and the mission's success, and if you can inspire them, then you will get their heart and soul. Because you'll give anything for the right thing.''
For Holzworth, the "right thing'' isn't just destroying, killing and blowing things up in combat.
It's enriching and building things up back home as well.
Holzworth's Marines have worked numerous children's causes and charity events, raising thousands of dollars and contributing thousands of hours for organizations.
They helped with the landscaping at the Lacey A. Collier Sensory Complex for profoundly disabled children, with coaching and supervising the Children's Miracle League and the Special Olympics for special-needs children, with cleaning up historical cemeteries and with much more. And when there's a 5K race, big groups of Marines often run in formation, chanting all the way, as they lend athleticism and spirit.
"This is a community worth fighting for,'' Holzworth said. "And there's no better friend, and no worse enemy, than the United States Marine Corps.''
'Ooh-rah!'
Holzworth also tries to instill team-building lessons even when having fun -- and he does want his Marines to have some fun, at least a little.
After all, once the young Marines head off to Iraq and Afghanistan, fun will be in short supply.
On a recent Saturday, Holzworth inspired his troops at the MATSG Cup competition, in which the Marines divide into teams to compete in a variety of games and skills -- from softball and soccer to breaking down weapons.
Holzworth arrived at the games on the back of a Humvee, brandishing a shield with the Marine Corps symbol and wearing war feathers on his helmet.
"Here we are Marines, on the field of battle,'' Holzworth bellowed in his best Matt Foley voice. "There is no second place. Take no prisoners.''
His Marines loved it.
In fact, Holzworth spent most of the morning mingling with the troops, urging them to make the other competitors "cry like little, bitty babies, like little crybabies.''
"Ooh-rah!'' Marines responded, with the catch-all Marine phrase.
Then, Holzworth went over to the team he was just talking trash about and urged them to make the other team "cry like babies.''
"Ooh-rah!''
"He's extremely motivating,'' said Pfc. Dale Hunt, 19. "He's just charismatic.''
Later, he urged the Marines to get some hamburgers and hot dogs at the cookout, yelling wildly "that I killed that meat myself.''
A bit eccentric, maybe?
Hunt almost looked offended.
"Eccentric?'' he asked "No. This is the Marine Corps, after all.'
Ellie