A Broad View by Jerry Hogan: One young man’s journey into the military

Rockwall County, TX (July 28, 2025) – Kevin Walters grew up in the country off FM 205 and attended Royse City High School until his junior year in 1995. He and his folks then moved to Chisholm Trail off Route 66 just outside Rockwall. He graduated from Rockwall High School in 1997. The next 10 years, according to him, have been both good and bad.

As he said, “I was always working in high school doing either fast food or local gas stations. After graduation I didn’t know what to do with myself. I had hooked up with a rough crowd towards the end of high school and I was pretty content to waste away the time drinking and partying. About two years later I started to see a bunch of my friends get into serious trouble. Some were getting into drugs, and some were getting arrested for petty crimes. I finally woke up and decided I didn’t want anything more to do with that lifestyle”.

He got a job in Oklahoma and a small romance started between he and a young lady. In 2000, she moved to New Orleans to start college, and he soon followed. He got a job at one of the local stores, but because of his girlfriend, he started hanging out with the college students.

As one might expect, he soon decided his future did not lie working in a store, but rather he could better spend his time going back to school. Now it was back to Texas so he could use his in-state residency while attending school.

He enrolled in Richland Community College and, wonder of wonders, he found not only did he enjoy school, but he was pretty good at it and started getting all A’s in his classes. After a year and a half, he applied and was accepted at Tulane back in New Orleans where he entered the school of Engineering.

But then in 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit and closed the school. So, it was back to Texas where he enrolled for one semester in Texas A&M Commerce, and then back to New Orleans. But then again bad luck as the engineering school at Tulane had to close because of the flood from the hurricane. Back to Texas again where he enrolled at Texas A&M in College Station.

But then doubt entered his mind. Here he was 27 years old, still in school, and no real future plans for when he graduated. His romance was also cooling so he decided to drop out of school, get a job, and see what he really wanted to do in life. He said, “I realized there was a laundry list of things I wanted to do before I was 30 and only one or two that I had actually done. I wanted to do something that would make a difference.

That’s when I remembered some of those catchy little tough guy bumper stickers from the Marine Corps back when I was at A&M. So, I called the recruiter . After a couple of visits, I signed up with the intention of doing an enlistment and see if I liked it”.

It was on to Marine Corps Boot Camp in San Diego. As he said “I had been a smoker since high school and had never been terribly active. If you had asked me a year ago, I would have described myself as a ‘scrawny little computer geek’. Being as old as I was at 27 and out of shape, I had a few conversations with my recruiter about what I should do to prepare for Boot Camp. He helped me work up a two-month preparation plan for getting in shape before I got there and it really helped”.

So, what was Boot Camp like for the almost 28-year-old new recruit?  As he said “compared to the younger guys I was in deep trouble. However, as the stress of being away from home for the first time, being told what to do all the time with little or no personal time or privacy, and the intense book study, I was a lot better off than many of the younger recruits”.

Upon graduation PFC Walters attended specialized training in communications and said that he was a charged-up Marine who believed in what he was doing.

For many people serving in the military is a life changing experience. Each person has their own reasons for serving, but no one ever leaves the service the same as when they entered. Fortunately, we have young men and women today who serve to protect our freedoms and our way of life.

As George Orwell said, “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm”.

How appropriate in todays world!!!

Jerry Hogan is a former Rockwall County Judge and a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel. He can be reached at jerryhogan@sbcglobal.net or 214-394-4033.