In My Own Words

Master SGT. Jack Lynch
Operations Chief, G3, Quantico Marine Corps Base, Va.

I coordinate the different activities aboard the base that require any of our ceremonial units or the band to support them. We do things like retirement ceremonies and the wreath-laying ceremony out at [President James] Madison’s home, Montpelier. The Boy Scouts come here often; girls’ soccer; youth soccer; all are supported by the base. There are larger events such as the Modern Day Marine exposition.

You want to avoid anything that does not reflect well on the Marine Corps. At Montpelier, you have congressmen out there; you have different dignitaries. And the band and ceremonial unit and the sound team — all the Marines that go out there — understand that in the eyes of everyone in the audience, they are potentially the Marine Corps. That might be the only time those people see Marines on active duty.

This is very different duty for me. I’ve spent most of my time in the rifle battalions, and I definitely miss it. One of the best times in my life was the six months I spent as a platoon commander with India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. The Marines I had were phenomenal. We went to Panama and the Gulf together. I worked with people who honestly believe there are some concepts that transcend money, status, position. They all believe that. If they didn’t, they definitely should have picked a different job.

Patriotism, the Marine Corps, those things are good enough to put you in a uniform. But to cross the line of departure under fire, there had better be something else there and it is the love for the guy next to you. Absolutely the greatest fear of Marines, without a doubt, is failure; not personal failure, but failing by letting someone else down. No one wants to be remembered as the man who failed the guy next to him. I can’t honestly describe it other than to say that even having a family, which I do, my relationship with the Marines and a rifle battalion or a rifle company is very, very different and no less close.

We were able to stay together with essentially the same unit for about two years. It was a very tight, very close-knit unit, and it was very painful to leave that and go to recruiting duty.

Recruiting duty was probably the most challenging tour I ever had. Compared to the other services, the Marine Corps is after a different product. As a Marine recruiter, you are specifically told you will never sell a job, and you will never sell college. When a young man or woman walks into a Marine Corps recruiting office, he or she realizes there are some places within the military services that don’t make you go to 12 weeks of boot camp at Parris Island, S.C. There are places that are recognized as having a higher standard of living. The young people walk into that Marine office because they saw a commercial that said, “Maybe you can be one of us.”

My whole family was in the Marine Corps; my uncle was in for 36 years. On my mother’s side, my grandfather and both of his sons were Marines. My father was a Marine, his brother was a Marine. I joined the Marines, my brother joined the Marines and my daughter’s married to a Marine. And I believe all of us served in the 6th Marine Regiment.

If I retire at the end of this tour, it will be from a rifle battalion with one more deployment. It will not be from Quantico. I’ve been in the Marine Corps 22 years. When my wife was alive, the goal was to go for 30 years. I’m not as sure of that now, for my children’s sake. But I have to do it at least one more time.