BRIG GEN DAVID GARZA 1:09

I did four years as an enlisted man in the Air Force as an engineer, nineteen months in Vietnam. I came back and got out, went to school at Texas A&M on the GI Bill, and while I was there, the Marine Recruiter, a gunnery sergeant, recruited me for the Marine infantry program, the officer commissioning program, OCS. So upon graduation from Texas A&M, I enlisted—as what I call—a free agent in the Marine OCS program, and I went to officer boot camp and I became a Marine Infantry Officer, and as they say, that’s how it all began.

All of the services practice teamwork, but we live it. For us, it starts at boot camp. We turn them into a Marine in attitude first, and we imbue this gung-ho attitude of teamwork. And then we imbue upon them Honor, Courage and Commitment at boot camp.

What makes us special, I think, is that we practice a concept called the MAGTAF: Marine Air-Ground Task Force. And everywhere we go, we become the nation’s expeditionary force in readiness. I serve this country because I firmly believe that my first obligation as a citizen is to serve this great nation and to help preserve its freedom.