A Broad View by Jerry Hogan: Age 27 – Just right for the Marine Corps

Rockwall, TX (October 14, 2025) – “If I were to speak to someone considering the military today, I would encourage them to research each branch until they found one that offered them the challenges and opportunities they were looking for, and once they did that, just jump in without any hesitation.”

These words were expressed several years ago by Private First-Class Kevin Walters, USMC. He grew up out in the country off FM 205 and attended Royse City High School until his Junior year in 1995. Then he and his folks moved to Chisholm Trail off Route 66 just outside Rockwall. He then graduated from Rockwall High School in 1997.

Then, in his words, the next ten years were both good and bad memories for him.

As he said, “I was always working in high school doing either fast-food jobs or local gas stations and after graduation I didn’t know what to do with myself. By the end of high school, I started spending my time drinking and partying with a rough crowd. About two years later I started to see a bunch of my friends get into some serious trouble. Some were getting into drugs, and some were getting arrested for petty crimes.

One day I woke up and just decided I didn’t want anything more to do with them.” At about the same time, a mother of one of his friends offered him a job in Oklahoma, so that’s where he headed.

And as often happens, a small romance then started between him and a young lady. She moved to New Orleans to start college, and he followed. Here he got a job at one of the local stores, but through his relationship with the young lady, started going on campus and hanging out with the students.

As you might expect, he soon decided his future did not lie in working in a store, but rather he could better spend his time and efforts going back to school. But since money was hard to come by, 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 that 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 Hurricane Katrina hit and closed the school. He returned to Texas, where his parents now lived in Quinlan.  One semester at Texas A&M Commerce and then back to New Orleans. But the “Black Cloud” was still over his head and Tulane was forced to close their engineering school because of the flood. Back to Texas again and this time to A&M at College Station. He got a couple of scholarships and was getting ready to finish his engineering degree with a second major in Physics.

But then doubt entered his mind. He was 27 years old and had no real plans for when he graduated. Additionally, his romance was getting cooler, so he decided to drop out of school and go to work for a while.

He moved to Austin for a tech job, hoping that some corporate experience would motivate him to finish his degree and strengthen his resume for post-graduation interviews at A&M.

However, he and his girlfriend finally decided to break up, so after eight years they ended their relationship. Now it really was decision time!

As he said, “I’m still young, but I have seen ten years of my life blink by as if it was nothing.  I realized there was a laundry list of things I wanted to do before I was thirty and I had only done one or two. I wanted something that would make a difference, and I wanted to get into better physical condition. I wanted something that would challenge me in life, and I wanted to see the world!”

He said that was when he remembered seeing those Marine Corps bumper stickers when he was at A&M. He called the recruiter and after a couple of visits, he signed up with the intention of doing an enlistment, finishing up his degree and then applying for a commission.

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 who serve to protect our freedom and our way of life.

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 today’s world.

(At a request, this article is a condensed version of an earlier article published several years ago.)