CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Fifteen 3rd Transportation Support Battalion Marines made a special commitment to the Corps and themselves here Friday.
In what he called a “big day for the battalion,” Col. Doarin R. Lewis re-enlisted 15 first-term Marines.
“Every year 28,000 Marines are eligible for re-enlistment,” Lewis told the battalion at a formation Friday morning before they boarded buses for a day off at the beach. “We take only about 5,000 for the honor of staying in.
“That says something about our Corps,” Lewis said. “The Marine Corps can only retain a few of those who want to stay. That means these men we swore in today are our best. They are our future.”
Lewis said the ceremony was a way to say “thank you.”
“It was also a way to remind them of the special responsibility that goes with being a Marine,” he told Stars and Stripes. “It’s a position that requires honorable conduct from them and commitment from us, as their leaders, to see to it that their time with us makes them richer, fitter and smarter and an asset instead of a liability to their community.”
