When Windham graduate Robert Kirkbride told his mother he wanted to become a U.S. Marine, she begged him to reconsider.
His mother hoped this was a passing phase like when he wanted to be like Elvis Presley or the next big baseball star.
She knew if he enlisted, Kirkbride would be sent to Iraq to face dangers lurking in the war-torn streets.
Kirkbride knew this too, but it only served to strengthen his desire.
“My country has done so much for me. I want to give back,” Kirkbride said. “I wanted to give back to people the freedom they’ve given me.”
And so in the span of little more than a week, Kirkbride celebrated two graduations. First, on Parris Island, South Carolina, where rank and file with his platoon he became an affirmed Marine, and then again last Sunday at the Cumberland County Civic Center where he stood in his Marine uniform among his classmates to receive his high school diploma.
Kirkbride, 18, enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corps on Sept. 11, 2005 – a coincidence, he said, though the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 deeply impacted him at the time.
Since that solemn day, Kirkbride thought about joining the service. And the U.S. Marine Corps was the only military outfit on his mind. He wanted to be the best, he said, work the hardest and earn the title of U.S. Marine.
He spent the fall of his senior year working out and getting his academic life in order to graduate by spring. After cramming a years worth of study into several months, Kirkbride shipped out in March to Parris Island for Marine Corps boot camp.
Though he learned physical endurance on the Windham High School wrestling team, nothing could prepare him for the mental endurance needed to get through boot camp.
Upon arriving at Parris Island, a drill sergeant stormed the bus and commanded the recruits to make their first and final phone call home.
They were told to put their feet on two yellow footprints, call their parents and read the message on the wall to inform them they arrived safely.
Then the extensive training began, the screams of the drill sergeants and constant movement: waking up at dawn, running obstacle courses, learning martial arts, sharp shooting, and bayonet training all the while testing the young recruits’ endurance.
“Everybody at first is nervous, but boot camp is more mental than physical,” Kirkbride said. “Your body will get tired, but then you figure out that your body can push itself further than it’s ever gone before.”
After three months of grueling military exercises, Kirkbride marched onto the parade deck with his recruit platoon, saluted his family and sergeants, and achieved his dream of becoming a Marine.
Back home, Kirkbride is still adjusting to life outside boot camp and nervously awaits further military training in California.
“When you come back, you still are in the mind of the boot camp,” he said. “It’s hard to get back in the whole routine, but it’s good to see my old friends.”
Last Sunday, his mother, Kellie Pizzo, and father, Robert Kirkbride Sr., watched as their son, dressed in his Marine blues, walked to get his diploma under a roar of cheers from his fellow classmates.
While Kirkbride thought little of the high school ceremony after the momentous boot camp graduation, Pizzo said seeing her son receive his diploma revealed him as a young man, all grown up and dedicated to his future.
As other graduates fidgeted in their seats while waiting to get their diplomas, Kirkbride sat upright, hands folded in his lap, the perfect Marine, Pizzo recalled.
“He’s got his heart and soul in the Marines and feels this is his calling,” Pizzo said. “I’m just really proud of him.”
After the graduating class tossed their caps to the air, several Vietnam veterans greeted Kirkbride and talked with him about their experience in the military. They swapped stories of boot camp with Kirkbride and gave him the age-old advice to “keep his head low” during battle.
Within a matter of months, Kirkbride will be sent to fight the ongoing insurgency in Iraq as the U.S. military works to maintain the peace and give time for the Iraqi people to construct a democratic government and take over security of their own country.
Kirkbride has no apprehension about going to war. He believes he will be prepared for the challenges he’ll face overseas. This is why he signed up with the Marines and what he has been trained to do. The Marines are always at the frontlines in war, the first to go and last to leave, he said.
On June 25, Kirkbride will pack his bags once again for further training in California.
For now, in the weeks before he leaves again, Kirkbride is spending time with family and friends.
“Getting ready to leave, you don’t know how many times you’re going to be back,” Kirkbride said. “You want to cherish those moments with your family and friends because you don’t know what’s going to happen around the corner.”
As many of his classmates prepare for college next fall, Kirkbride steps bravely toward an uncertain future, but with steadfast conviction to serve his country as a U.S. Marine.
“It was definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but it was the best choice I’ve ever made,” Kirkbride said.
Windham graduate Robert Kirkbride stands in his U.S. Marine Corps uniform and cap. Kirkbride celebrated his boot camp graduation and high school graduation recently and will leave for Iraq in coming months.Send questions/comments to the editors.
