Life in the U.S. Marine Corps

Written by Brint Rajiv Gurung

I was born in California and am the first Indian/American in my family to serve my country as a United States Marine. My father is from New Delhi, India, where much of his family remains today. I had the privilege of visiting India numerous times as a child to and to have family visit our home in the United States. Growing up we were very family oriented, and my parents did everything in their power to give my brothers and me everything we wanted. We were a huge sports family where I played soccer, baseball, football, basketball, and studied Tae Kown Do. As I got older, I decided to focus on soccer primarily because my father was a huge fan and played a little himself. As high school neared to an end, I was not heavily recruited by the schools I desired to attend for college. This led me to speak with a military recruiter since my mother and father had expressed how proud they would be to have a son serve in the military. My decision was to join the United States Marine Corps after high school graduation and make my family proud, gain a free education, and to feel the patriotism and pride of serving after the vicious terrorism attack known as September 11th, 2001. This was the life my mother and father had envisioned for their sons and was a driving factor for the reason of joining the service during a time of war.

Nawa District, Afghanistan in 2009

I graduated from boot camp in August 2007 and completed my entry-level training by December the same year. The Marine Corps has been nothing but a blessing for me since I departed home for boot camp all those years ago. They have sent me all around the world to some of the most amazing and scariest places you could imagine. Fortunately, I have accomplished what I set out to do by joining the Marine Corps in the first place. My father is proud of not only of my service, but the service of my two younger brothers who followed in my footsteps and joined the Marines as well. I have deployed four times in service of my country to multiple combat theaters during my time, as well as participating in sea deployments in the Pacific. I have visited countries such as Thailand, Korea, Australia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, and the scariest places were Iraq and Afghanistan. I served in a few different billets such as a communications chief where I was responsible for Information Technology systems and radios. I have also served in administrative roles where I was responsible for ensuring the smooth transition to and from the different countries. My point is every billet or job is different, as many of them are not on the “front line”, but you are trained to be prepared in the event you are placed in that position. It does make you a little nervous at first, but you overcome that with the thought of why you are fighting quickly.

Aboard the U.SS. Tortuga with the 31st MEU in 2008

Education was a huge thing for my father growing up as he made us always focus on school first, then sports or anything else after. This disciple still ran through my veins just as much as the Marine Corps’ discipline did. After a few years in the service, I was able to complete my bachelor’s degree in information systems security in a total of five years. Not only did I accomplish a degree while serving, but I have my master’s degree in cybersecurity as well. I was able to accomplish these amazing milestones by simply taking classes during my off time, had the military completely pay 100 percent of it, and I did not incur any additional time requirement for service. Being able to accomplish all I have in my career [17 years of service to date] must be accredited to the disciplined lifestyle and morals my father had instilled in me growing up. This will continue when I decide to retire and transition from the military to the civilian sector again. My goals remain fairly close as they are now; provide for my family, continue to be an eternal student, excel in a career within cybersecurity, and change the world one step at a time.

BN team won the commander’s cup in Japan.

My experience of being a service member of Indian ethnicity has grown so much since I first joined. I used to be one of the only few who had an Indian last name or other defining features. Today, I see so many more proud service members of Indian background and being able to relate to them is an amazing privilege. I used to look at the Marine Corps email address book and I would be the only “Gurung” in the whole thing. Over the years, especially most recently, there have been more “Gurung” email addresses populating. This shows me parents are taking pride in their country and supporting their children’s decision to serve their country with honor. I understand this is not a traditional career path parents would want their beloved children to take, but having pride in a country where you call home is very important. This is exactly why I would make the same decision to serve my country if given the chance to do it again.