CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti - (March 8, 2003) -- A Marine, here in support of Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, and his son, a Marine who is stationed in Kuwait, are both currently fighting in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Gunnery Sgt. Ronald N. Brady is assigned to Command Logistics Element, Marine Central Command here, and his son Jeffery is assigned to 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Aircraft Group-11, Intelligence section, Kuwait.

Brady says, for nearly 75 years the name Brady has been synonymous with Marine. The legacy started with his father's enlistment in the 1920s, progressed with his own enlistment in Oct. 24, 1965 when he decided to step on the yellow footprints at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, and continues with his son Jeffery's enlistment in September 1999.

"My father and older brother were both Marines," Brady said, an activated reservist from a Belle Chasse, La., based unit who now serves as provost sergeant for the military police detachment here. "Simply put, I wanted to be a Marine too."

During his four-year active duty career from 1965-1969, Brady served as an MP at Camp Pendleton, Ca., and also at the Wahiawa Kunia Marine detachment on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, protecting a Naval cryptographic facitly.

"I was a young naïve, kid. I had all these notions that the Marine Corps was this perfect institution," Brady recollected.

Brady said he realized nothing is perfect, and he looked at the driving force within the Corps - honor, courage and commitment - to guide him.

"Those years I really matured," Brady said. "I was extremely shy as a kid and lacked self confidence. The Corps gave me the gift of confidence - it made me realize I could accomplish anything I want, when I put my mind to it."

In 1969, Brady received an honorable discharge as a corporal and decided to follow in is grandfather's footsteps and become a New Orleans police officer.

He held numerous positions during his 26-year career as a police officer. He was a patrolman, detective and a part of New Orleans' Special Weapons Assault Team.

"I enjoyed that type of action - patrolling high crime areas, surveillance, guarding dignitaries," he said.

One action in 1973 was momentous. A lone sniper stationed himself on the Howard Johnson Hotel rooftop in New Orleans. Brady was part of the team who ended this horrific act, which took the lives of three civilians and four police officers.

It was only fitting a Marine CH-46 helicopter aided the team as they apprehended the sniper, Brady said.

However, it would take an attack on his family - his Marine Corps family - to raise this Devil Dog's blood level once again.

In 1983, during a terrorist attack in Beirut, Lebanon, more than 200 Marines and sailors lost their lives at the Marine Barracks.

"I thought we were going to war," Brady said. "I wanted to get back in the Corps." At the time, Brady had been discharged from the Marines for 14 years.

The 36 year-old Brady ventured to a recruiter's office with aspirations of re-enlisting into the Corps, but the recruitment office personnel said he was too old.

Two years passed. Then a friend of Brady's suggested he join the reserves. Brady enlisted in the Marine Corps reserves as a 38 year-old corporal.

"I didn't realize how much I missed the camaraderie - I found it again when I got back in," Brady said.

It's been 17 years since Brady joined the reserves. At the same time, he continued his civilian life as a father and police officer. After his retirement from NOPD, he took a job with the U.S. State Department as an anti-terrorism and hostage rescue instructor. He has even patented an invention; a shield/ladder that police officers can use when approaching a hostile building.

Since his enlistment in the reserves, he already answered the call of his country in 1991 during Desert Storm. Now, he has answered again, along with his son.

Jeffery wanted to find the mystique of the Corps for himself, too.

Brady found out his son often stopped by the recruiter's office after school - a fact his family was unaware at the time, Brady said.

"When I found out he was doing this, I wanted him to do it for the right reasons - for himself -- not because his granddad and father were in the Corps" Brady said.

When Jeffery made his decision, retired Chief Warrant Officer Patrick Kane, a close friend of Brady's, drove to New Orleans and "swore in" Jeffery three days after his 17th birthday. After high school graduation, Jeffery was standing on the same yellow footprints his uncle, granddad and father once stood on years before in San Diego.

"My son was chomping at the bit to get called up. I was the same way during Vietnam," he said. "As a father I didn't want it to happen, but as a gunny I want him to serve his country -it's hard for me to differentiate between the two. I just want him home safe."