LTCOL ALPHONSO TRIMBLE 1:29

My name is Lieutenant Colonel Al Trimble. I’m currently the commanding officer for the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training at Marine Unit, New River, North Carolina.

What we do there is we train Marine maintainers to maintain the B-22, the CH-53s, and our CH-46 aircraft.

Luck is what we call opportunity meeting preparation. When that preparation, when you’re prepared for something in life, and the opportunity comes: man, there’s not a better merge than that. When those specific opportunities present themselves, you’re ready. The Marine Corps does a great job of preparing you to take advantage of those opportunities.

And the Marine Corps does another thing: It presents those opportunities to you. There are opportunities to attend college, opportunity for further education. And one thing about being in the Corps, you understand how to learn. When you learn how to learn, and enjoy learning, and you take that, and you cross that, again I want to say with preparation and opportunity, nothing in the world can stop you.

What gives me the fire in my gut is the reward that comes with service. And I think that reward is a deep feeling of self-satisfaction that you’ve actually contributed something to something a little bigger than yourself, you contributed something to society, and if you’re lucky, you’ve contributed something to the world.