Houston Marine Reservist Excels in Afghanistan
(June 28, 2011) |
|
|
| FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELARAM II, Nimruz Province,
Afghanistan (MCN - 6/24/2011) — Lance Cpl. Patrick
Robertson, a native of Houston, is a reserve infantry Marine
with 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, and is currently
serving his first deployment to Afghanistan. |
June 24, 2011 - Lance Cpl. Patrick Robertson, a reserve infantry
Marine from Houston, stands in front of his unit's, 1st Battalion,
23rd Marine Regiment, flag, while serving in Afghanistan. Robertson
is currently going to college to get his degree in mechanical
engineering and then potentially become a commissioned officer in
the Marine Corps. |
|
Twenty-one year old Robertson graduated high school in 2007 and
started boot camp in January, 2008. Coming from a strong patriotic
background, his family and friends supported his decision to enlist,
though he and his brother are the first in his immediate family.
Robertson and his brother were home schooled by their mother
until their junior and senior year of high school; they attended
Kingwood Community College in Houston and received dual credit for
their classes that counted towards high school and college. After
community college they began their journey to become Marines
together. The brothers endured recruit training and the School of
Infantry side by side.
“No one in my immediate family had
served in the military so they thought I was kind of crazy when I
said I wanted to join the Marines,” Robertson said. “I got my
brother to go along with me. We definitely helped each |
|
other throughout boot camp.” |
|
The brothers split ways after their training was complete.
Robertson returned to Houston to become part of a reserve
unit, 1/23, and continue his education at the University of
Houston, while his brother went active duty and now serves
in 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment based out of Camp
Pendleton, Calif.
Robertson checked into his current
battalion in the summer of 2008, and started his ‘fleet'
career as the remainder of the battalion was returning from
Iraq.
“I met Robertson when we got back from Iraq. We
came back from deployment in 2008 and he was there,” said
Sgt. Francisco Vega, a platoon sergeant with the unit.
Before deploying Robertson performed his duties as a
reservist, one weekend a month and two weeks out of the
year, while attending college. His end goal is to become a
commissioned officer in the Marine Corps.
“He'll be
good because he'll have a little bit of both because he will
see the enlisted side and the officer side,” Vega said. “You
get Marines that you task out and they do what you ask and
more, he is one of those guys. He is an overachiever, making
everyone else look bad; making sergeants look like privates.
He wants to be an officer, and he will fit right in.”
“You give him a task and he knocks it out,” said 1st Lt.
David Wright, the executive officer for his company. “He
goes above and beyond. Right now he's been helping the
surgeon go through a research project in his spare time
helping compute data on top of doing his daily job. He's
definitely motivated.”
Robertson has already
completed the first six out of his 12 weeks of Officer
Candidate School. He needs to return from his current
deployment, continue working on his bachelor's degree in
mechanical engineering, and finish OCS before he is eligible
to accept a commission as a second lieutenant.
“Officer Candidate School is very different from boot camp.
Boot camp they want you to get through, they want you to
become a Marine, to be the best person, the best Marine. OCS
is more of a screening process. Only the best of the best
are to be officers. They are really trying to make sure that
they are part of that upper echelon. It was one of the more
difficult things I've ever done with my life,” Robertson
said. “When I get commissioned, I'll go active duty. At that
point in time, I will have made my decision that this will
be my career. I would love to do human intelligence or
signals intelligence. To me it is amazing the way
intelligence can change the battle space.”
The
potential for the future holds vast possibilities, but
currently Robertson is doing his time in Afghanistan
alongside the other Marines of his battalion. Those same
Marines have recognized his potential and support his
decision to advance his Marine Corps career.
“It will
be an honor for me to salute that guy,” Vega said.
Editor's Note: Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine
Regiment is a unit of Regimental Combat Team 8. Located in
Northern Helmand province their mission is to partner with
Afghan National Security Forces and the Government of the
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan while conducting
counterinsurgency operations.
|
Article and photo by USMC LCpl. Clayton Vonderahe
Regimental Combat Team 8
Copyright 2011 | |
Reprinted from
Marine Corps News
Comment on this article |
|
