Marines pride themselves not only on their war-fighting ability, but also on such things as honor, courage, character, leadership, and commitment. The Young Marine program is an education and service program that promotes theses traits as well as mental, moral, and physical development of youth, ages 8 to 18. The program’s mentors and leaders are former, retired, reserve, and active-duty Marines that want to pass on the values they learned. I talked last week with Corporal James Carter, a Marine who was active in the Young Marine program before his deployment to Afghanistan with Regimental Combat Team-7…
“It’s cool seeing the changes in all the children… You could see a drastic change in their behavior and the way they approached their parents. They started to take pride in themselves and they actually cared how they came off to others.” Carter explained how the youths achieve those changes. “We speak to them about things that are important: courage, commitment, things that most Marines are instilled with in boot camp, and help them understand those concepts.” Carter said the highlight of his time with the Young Marine program was judging a competition that included Young Marines from all over Southern California. “Seeing how all of them took pride in what they’re doing, excited they get when they succeeded. It was pretty cool, impressive.” Corporal Carter will be returning to Southern California in a couple of weeks and he’s excited about returning to the Young Marine program.
WE TALK TO A MARINE, DEPLOYED TO AFGHANISTAN
