Chance to travel lures recruit

Chance to travel lures recruit
MCB Hawaii
Story by Pfc. Edward C. deBree

MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii (Dec. 09, 2005) -- Instead of just standing around watching Marines from Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, set up antennas for a field-training exercise, Petty Officer 3rd Class Jan Michael V. Miramon decides to help out by pulling stakes out of the ground.

“I think it’s nice to help out people,” said the 21-year-old Vallejo, Calif. native. “That’s why I chose this job.”
Miramon is a hospital corpsman for 1/12 and has been in the Navy since August 2002.

After graduating Pinole Valley High School, Miramon began college but realized that he did not want to live the life that had surrounded him in his neighborhood.

“I joined the Navy to get away from home,” he said. “I wanted to get away from the gangs and dead-end jobs that surrounded me.”

After talking with the recruiter, there was no doubt in his mind which job he wanted to do. Miramon chose to be a hospital corpsman because of his love for the medical field.

“When I was going to college, I was taking the pre-elective classes for nursing, because I like to help people,” he said. “I plan on continuing college while I’m in the Navy and as of right now, I plan on staying in the Navy as a career.”

Miramon said another factor that helped him decide to join was the many travel opportunities in the Navy. So far, he has only been on a deployment to Thailand with an artillery battery, but he hopes that more opportunities to travel will come soon.

“When I was in Thailand I was basically on standby for artillery,” said Miramon. “I put a lot of my money into the Thai community when I was over there. But I want to travel a lot, and it was exciting for me when I got my orders to come to Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay.”

Miramon reported to this base approximately six months ago. Since then he has picked up surfing, swimming and riding all-terrain vehicles as hobbies during his time off. He also enjoys going to the clubs around the island.

“I love the atmosphere here when I go out,” he said. “This place is a very beautiful place. I have been here before when I was like 10 years old, but I was too young to remember anything. Now that I’m older, I enjoy the things there are to do here a lot more. I didn’t get to do any of those things when I was younger, and since I am stationed here I decided to take advantage of them. ”

This is Miramon’s second duty station since joining the Navy. He was previously stationed at Bethesda Naval Hospital before coming to Hawaii.

“There’s not really that much to complain about here,” he said. “I mean it’s Hawaii. There are many things that people can do out there on the island. And another plus to being stationed here is that it’s really beautiful here. How can anyone complain?”

Ellie