MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO -- The recruits of Company G, 2nd Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, gathered for the emblem ceremony on the grinder at Weapons and Field Training Battalion, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., Sept. 11. The day marked the culmination of 12 weeks of training the recruits have gone through to earn the title of Marine.
Earning the title of Marine is a milestone for all recruits, but for Pvt. Shawn W. Quist it is more than just that. For Quist, earning the title Marine means finally finishing something he set out to do over four years ago.
When Quist graduated from high school, he and three of his friends decided they wanted to join the Marine Corps.
“Joining the Marines was all we ever talked about,” said the 22-year old Mesa, Ariz., native. “It was all we wanted to do.”
However, the birth of his son would put Quist’s dream of joining the Marines on hold.
“I didn’t know what I should do,” said Quist. “Should I follow my dream of joining the Corps or stay here and be a father?”
When the time came, Quist informed his friends that he would not be leaving for boot camp with them. He would instead stay behind and raise his new son while his friends left.
“I wanted to make sure my son got to know me,” said Quist. “It was a difficult decision, but I decided I would stay home and work to be there for my son.”
All three friends kept to the group’s dream plan and joined the Marines. They left for recruit training together and wrote to Quist about the experiences they were going through. He wrote letters of encouragement to his friends; telling them he was proud of all of them and how he wished he could be there with them.
His friends graduated from recruit training, and all three ended up assigned the same unit. That was in 2004, a time when the war in Iraq was at its busiest.
“We all knew they would go to Iraq, but we never expected what the outcome of them going would be,” said Quist, who recalled when he learned that his friends were all killed in Iraq.
Four years have passed since then and as Quist sat down to his Warrior’s Breakfast surrounded by the other new Marines of Platoon 2156, Company G, thoughts of the hardships they endured at this point came to mind. They discussed the events of the Crucible, the Reaper hike they never thought would end, and how the Warrior’s Breakfast may be the best meal they have ever had.
“I finally understand what my friends wrote about in their letters,” said Quist. “I felt I owed it to them to do this. It just took me a while to get here.”
Because Quist wasn’t like the average recruit, he stood out to the drill instructors.
“Quist is older than most of the other recruits,” said Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Kenly, senior drill instructor, Platoon 2156, Company G. “He is more mature in some ways. Most of these guys are coming to recruit training right from high school and have no real-life experience. (Quist) shares his experience with the other recruits and reminds them of the reality of this job which helps to keep things in perspective.