thedrifter
04-27-08, 07:06 AM
Marine on service life: 'Just adapt and overcome'
April 27, 2008
By Jim Hook, Staff Writer
Jim Keating has a simple approach to military service: duty calls.
The 21-year-old Orland Park man graduated from Sandburg High School in December 2004. The next month, he was in boot camp in San Diego with his new platoon of Marines.
"I was 17 when I joined the Marine Corps," said Keating, a lance corporal. "I told myself after high school that if the war was still going, I would join.
"Part of it was patriotism, but part of it was I didn't want others doing a job I felt I should do," he said.
Keating arrived at the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot in San Diego and experienced "culture shock" firsthand.
"I remember thinking 'What have I done?' as soon as I got off the bus and was standing on the yellow footprints waiting to be processed," he said. "It was tough.
"I had never been out on my own. The drill instructors are in your face yelling at you," Keating said. "I had never been treated like that. You just adapt and overcome."
He said quitting was never an option.
"I had to complete what I started, no matter what," Keating said. "I could have never looked people in the eyes knowing I failed."
He spent the next several months infantry training in California's Mojave Desert where he learned to operate shoulder-fired rockets and detonate improvised explosive devices and other weapons.
"That was the cool part," he said.
Keating's platoon was deployed to Husaybah, Iraq, in February 2006 and spent the next seven months living in an "old youth center."
"It was like a big house, and we had 40 Marines and 40 Iraqi soldiers all living together," he said. "That was the base from which we conducted all our missions."
Keating said he felt uneasy at first but settled down and gained confidence under the watchful tutelage of sev-eral "older, combat-tested Marines."
"I learned from them and trusted them, and that was a huge help," he said.
Keating said he's looking forward to starting college when his Marine commitment is satisfied.
He wants to attend Western Illinois University in Macomb to study law enforcement with the hope of someday being a police officer.
But one thing's for sure.
"If there's another war down the road, I'll re-enlist," Keating said. "I'm a Marine."
Jim Hook can be reached at jhook@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5961.
Ellie
April 27, 2008
By Jim Hook, Staff Writer
Jim Keating has a simple approach to military service: duty calls.
The 21-year-old Orland Park man graduated from Sandburg High School in December 2004. The next month, he was in boot camp in San Diego with his new platoon of Marines.
"I was 17 when I joined the Marine Corps," said Keating, a lance corporal. "I told myself after high school that if the war was still going, I would join.
"Part of it was patriotism, but part of it was I didn't want others doing a job I felt I should do," he said.
Keating arrived at the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot in San Diego and experienced "culture shock" firsthand.
"I remember thinking 'What have I done?' as soon as I got off the bus and was standing on the yellow footprints waiting to be processed," he said. "It was tough.
"I had never been out on my own. The drill instructors are in your face yelling at you," Keating said. "I had never been treated like that. You just adapt and overcome."
He said quitting was never an option.
"I had to complete what I started, no matter what," Keating said. "I could have never looked people in the eyes knowing I failed."
He spent the next several months infantry training in California's Mojave Desert where he learned to operate shoulder-fired rockets and detonate improvised explosive devices and other weapons.
"That was the cool part," he said.
Keating's platoon was deployed to Husaybah, Iraq, in February 2006 and spent the next seven months living in an "old youth center."
"It was like a big house, and we had 40 Marines and 40 Iraqi soldiers all living together," he said. "That was the base from which we conducted all our missions."
Keating said he felt uneasy at first but settled down and gained confidence under the watchful tutelage of sev-eral "older, combat-tested Marines."
"I learned from them and trusted them, and that was a huge help," he said.
Keating said he's looking forward to starting college when his Marine commitment is satisfied.
He wants to attend Western Illinois University in Macomb to study law enforcement with the hope of someday being a police officer.
But one thing's for sure.
"If there's another war down the road, I'll re-enlist," Keating said. "I'm a Marine."
Jim Hook can be reached at jhook@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5961.
Ellie