U.S. Marine Corps, the first step in Williamson’s journey
Four years in the United States Marine Corps, right out of high school, gave Osage native Tyrel Williamson an experience that led him to encourage a younger generation of graduates to follow in his footsteps.
Williamson said as a year 2000 graduating Osage Community High School senior he was done sitting in a classroom and was searching for something different.
Although Williamson said he had some relatives who had enlisted in the military and his paternal grandfather served in World War II, his most significant influence was not a family member. He said, “I think a big part of it was I had one person that sticks in my mind, Brent Jennings, the wrestling coach for Osage High School, was in the military so I kind of looked up to that.”
After visiting a few recruiters and learning the Marine Corps offered the most challenging boot camp, Williamson said, “Why not give it a try.”
Williamson’s enlistment was official between his junior and senior year of high school. He said the Corps offered a delayed entry program at which recruiters taught parts of drill and physical training to give young recruits a head start, so he attended when he had free weekends during his senior year.
Williamson became active military in the United States Marine Corps as an infantryman in the year 2000, serving four years with nearly three of those years deployed.
Over his time as a Marine, Williamson performed a variety of jobs within the field of infantryman. He said he was deployed as a machine gunner and then deployed with a motor platoon as a fire direction center and forward observer.
“When I got in [in 2000] there was kind of a lull between the first gulf war and the next [conflict,]” Williamson said.
Prior to each deployment they would spend six months preparing for whatever situation they were heading to. However, according to Williamson his first deployment was his most laid-back experience, spending six months in Okinawa, Japan with the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines.
Read the rest in this week’s EJ.
Read the rest in this week’s EJ.
