LTCOL GERALD CARTER 1:56

I’m Lieutenant Colonel Gerry Carter. I’ve been in the Marine Corps for 19 years. I’m from York, Pennsylvania, and I’m an Intelligence Officer. Fourth rotation in Iraq, I just returned home probably about maybe six days ago right now, so it’s good to be home.

When I came out of high school in 1983, the opportunities were few and far between. I came from a very humble beginning, and what was very apparent to me was that my family could not afford to send me to college. I knew I wanted to go to college and do other things in life, and the Marine Corps presented a number of opportunities, opened up a lot of doors for me. In many ways I would say that it has changed my life dramatically.

When I left Parris Island, I walked tall, my shoulders were rolled back, head and eyes straight to the front, and there was nothing in the world that I didn’t think I could accomplish when I left the “Motivated Island,” as we call it.

One of the midshipmen I shared earlier asked me—I was a banking and finance major here—and he asked why I didn’t go out in corporate America, why I elected to come to the Marine Corps, and stay and serve. And again I just go back to the friendship and the camaraderie, the esprit de corps, the foundation that I have now in the Marine Corps, I think, without a doubt, even reflecting back over the 20-year period, you can’t find this anywhere else, you can’t buy it. The money is good in corporate America, I would suppose, but the friendship is a lifetime.

Overall, whether you’re an Intelligence Officer, Infantry Officer, it doesn’t matter. As a Marine Corps officer, as a Marine in general, any Marine, from Private all the way to the Commandant of the Marine Corps, you can look at a Marine and say that there’s a guy that I can count on and he has a very good base of leadership and qualities about him that would be successful in any part of the world.