thedrifter
06-30-08, 07:59 AM
Dad inspires son to serve his country
Recruit to be deployed in January
By Scott Hadly (Contact)
Monday, June 30, 2008
It's been a year since he signed the papers and David Zehner was itching to go.
The wait to go off to basic training and become a Marine had actually been a lot longer for the 18-year-old Camarillo High School graduate.
"I think maybe I've wanted to be a Marine since I was born," said the tall former Eagle Scout with a buzz cut. "It's something I've always wanted to do."
Zehner shipped out last week for Camp Pendleton to begin the 12-week U.S. Marine Corps basic training.
"I signed up with the delayed-entry program June 3 of last year, so it's been a little over a year," he said before his departure. "I joined the Marines because I'd heard they had the hardest basic training of any service, and I figured if I had to go into harm's way, I'd want to go with the best. That's what I tell my friends at least."
He'd enlisted with the hope of working on the crew of a big, lumbering twin-rotor CH-46 helicopter and maybe becoming a pilot himself. But after he learned he was colorblind, that option was eliminated.
He still harbors dreams of flying and was getting his pilot's license at Camarillo Airport, but that is on hold as he begins his enlistment.
Now he's set to become a field radio operator with a Marine reserve artillery unit. Although he anticipated joining the reserves and serving his six years while attending UCLA, the unit is set to deploy on active duty in January, just as Zehner finishes up his advanced combat training.
"It's not that I'm scared, it's that I wasn't really expecting it," he said about a week before going to basic training. "But, and it's not that I'm running to the sound of gunfire or anything, it's just that the country needs people."
Though he doesn't have a long family history of military service, Zehner himself has spent much of his life in uniform. He's an Eagle Scout who served in junior ROTC and most recently served with the Civil Air Patrol in Camarillo, a volunteer quasi-military organization that focuses on emergency services at the local level.
After he signed up for the delayed-entry program with the Marines last year, he spent 12 months going almost weekly to meetings, doing physical training and bonding with others who'd made the same decision.
His parents and sister support him but were a little surprised that he didn't choose to go to college right away.
The Marines didn't offer him any sort of signing bonus, and he isn't doing it so much to get specialized training either.
Zehner said he's also had to correct people's mistaken ideas about who joins the military.
"There's a misperception that people who join don't have any other choices or are only from a lower socio-economic background, and that's not true," he said. "For me I see it as a term of service. My father, he basically did everything on his own. His hard work provided us with everything we needed, and I see that it's our country that enabled him to do that. This is my way of giving back."
Ellie
Recruit to be deployed in January
By Scott Hadly (Contact)
Monday, June 30, 2008
It's been a year since he signed the papers and David Zehner was itching to go.
The wait to go off to basic training and become a Marine had actually been a lot longer for the 18-year-old Camarillo High School graduate.
"I think maybe I've wanted to be a Marine since I was born," said the tall former Eagle Scout with a buzz cut. "It's something I've always wanted to do."
Zehner shipped out last week for Camp Pendleton to begin the 12-week U.S. Marine Corps basic training.
"I signed up with the delayed-entry program June 3 of last year, so it's been a little over a year," he said before his departure. "I joined the Marines because I'd heard they had the hardest basic training of any service, and I figured if I had to go into harm's way, I'd want to go with the best. That's what I tell my friends at least."
He'd enlisted with the hope of working on the crew of a big, lumbering twin-rotor CH-46 helicopter and maybe becoming a pilot himself. But after he learned he was colorblind, that option was eliminated.
He still harbors dreams of flying and was getting his pilot's license at Camarillo Airport, but that is on hold as he begins his enlistment.
Now he's set to become a field radio operator with a Marine reserve artillery unit. Although he anticipated joining the reserves and serving his six years while attending UCLA, the unit is set to deploy on active duty in January, just as Zehner finishes up his advanced combat training.
"It's not that I'm scared, it's that I wasn't really expecting it," he said about a week before going to basic training. "But, and it's not that I'm running to the sound of gunfire or anything, it's just that the country needs people."
Though he doesn't have a long family history of military service, Zehner himself has spent much of his life in uniform. He's an Eagle Scout who served in junior ROTC and most recently served with the Civil Air Patrol in Camarillo, a volunteer quasi-military organization that focuses on emergency services at the local level.
After he signed up for the delayed-entry program with the Marines last year, he spent 12 months going almost weekly to meetings, doing physical training and bonding with others who'd made the same decision.
His parents and sister support him but were a little surprised that he didn't choose to go to college right away.
The Marines didn't offer him any sort of signing bonus, and he isn't doing it so much to get specialized training either.
Zehner said he's also had to correct people's mistaken ideas about who joins the military.
"There's a misperception that people who join don't have any other choices or are only from a lower socio-economic background, and that's not true," he said. "For me I see it as a term of service. My father, he basically did everything on his own. His hard work provided us with everything we needed, and I see that it's our country that enabled him to do that. This is my way of giving back."
Ellie