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ROBERTSON BARRACKS, Northern Territory, Australia – After leaving
the US at age eight, Lance Cpl. Brian Walsh, assaultman, Weapons
Platoon, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, Marine
Rotational Force – Darwin, still wanted to become a United States
Marine. He traveled back overseas and more than 5,000 miles to
fulfill that dream.
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July 7, 2013 -- Lance Cpl. Brian Walsh,
assaultman, Weapons Platoon, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine
Regiment, Marine Rotational Force – Darwin, traveled back overseas
and more than 5,000 miles from Crosshaven, Ireland, to San Diego to
fulfill his dream of becoming a Marine. More than two years after
joining the Corps, Walsh came to Australia with Lima Co., 3rd Bn.,
3rd Marine Regiment, as part of the second iteration of MRF-D.
Because the Australians share the Irish passion for rugby, Walsh has
been able to catch almost every game of Munster, an Irish rugby
team, during his time here. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Sarah
Fiocco)
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In 2010, Walsh returned to Royal Oak, Mich., from
Crosshaven, Ireland, to stay with his aunt and pursue his
life-long goal. He met with a Marine recruiter to discuss
his ambition to become part of a brotherhood he has admired
since he was a young child.
“I always heard so many
stories about Marines,” said Walsh. “I wanted the honor of
wearing that uniform. It just looked better to me than any
of the other branches, and I've always been up for a bit of
a challenge.”
Walsh found getting started on the
paperwork in order to wear that uniform he longed for proved
to be a bit of a challenge.
“It was funny because the
recruiters had never seen a case like mine,” explained
Walsh. “I brought them my paperwork and everything was
Irish. They didn't even know what it meant. They had to call
up the Irish Embassy and fax stuff to them.”
Now that
Wash has completed recruit training, he has accompanied Lima
Co. to Australia as part of the second iteration of MRF-D.
Throughout the past three months in the Top End, he has
noticed a lot of similarities between the Australian and
Irish culture.
“Some of the slang words here are the
same as the ones in Ireland,” said Walsh. “Like ‘bin' for
trash and ‘pub' for bar. Not to mention they're into a lot
of the same sports as the Irish – like rugby.”
When
Walsh attended school in Ireland after leaving the states,
he found one of the ways he connected with his peers was by
playing rugby. While he didn't get to catch every Munster
game on TV in America, he is now able to watch his favorite
team play in almost every game here in Darwin.
“I'm a
huge rugby fan, and I played it pretty much the whole time I
lived in Ireland,” explained Walsh. “I've been playing a lot
out here, too. We're trying to get a team together for
Weapons Platoon. Hopefully we can go out in town and play a
game.”
After two years of serving in the Corps, Walsh
is just as enthusiastic about his job as he is about rugby.
“I get to come in and shoot rockets,” said Walsh. “All
of us in Weapons Platoon are like a family. We're really
close knit. I love my job.”
By USMC Sgt. Sarah Fiocco
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2013
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