Interview of U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. James Church about winning the 2019 USO Salute to Freedom Award for North Carolina. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Jared Siniscalchi)
Transcript
I joined the Marine Corps to challenge myself and to make a change within myself. I originally went to college before that, but I feel like I needed more. I’m currently a platoon sergeant with Combat Logistics Battalion 6 for Crisis Response Africa, Special MAGTF. I am a combat engineer, I’m 1371. We deal a lot with explosives and a lot of horizontal and vertical construction. After Hurricane Florence, we, as a company of engineers, we sent out teams around base, to cut down trees that were fallen or had gotten damaged from the hurricane, and we consolidated all of it, so that way, other cleanup crews could come in and finish the rest of the work. After the hurricane, I was in charge of two teams of engineers that pushed out around the base to help with cleanup. I orchestrated their movement and how they cleaned up the base. During Trident Juncture 2018, I was in charge of a platoon of combat engineers and their training. It involved a lot with working with the Norwegian counterparts, with machine guns, all the way to explosives and IED detection. Trident Juncture 2018 was a perfect example of how I lead Marines overseas. But back here, on Camp Lejeune, I like to lead Marines the same way, so that way we are trained and effectively able to go forward and do whatever the mission is. It was an honor for myself and all my Marines to get out in the community and give back to them, because they give back to us every day throughout the year, so it was really a big honor for us to give back to the community. I thought it was necessary that I give my all during the hurricane cleanup, because I had a lot of Marines’ families who suffered during the hurricane and have been through a lot during that time. They had houses that got destroyed and things like that, so it was vital for myself and my leadership to really give our all to the Marines and to the cleanup, so that the community could prosper from it.