I joined the Inland Young Marines (San Bernardino, CA.) in 1986. I attended OCS in Oct of 1988 and was promoted to 2nd Lt. Nov. 15 1988. I was also awarded Young Marine of the year for our unit in May or June of 1990. I was promoted to Colonel Sept. 1993. During that time I was working on a news letter for the young marines and a computer program that allows you to add up PFT scores. The PFT calculator was great, it cut the time in half need to add up PFT scores. The news letter you know today that is sent by National and is all fancy with color and pictures was a black and white, Zerox copied with crummy pictures and had to be stapled together but it served its purpose, now it is funded and controlled by National, it turned out to be a great way to bring the Young Marine units closer and helped share different points of views and ideas on a national level. For those two things I was the first Young Marine to be awarded the Distinguished Service ribbon in Sept. of 1990. Soon after I was discharged honorably in 1993 after being promoted to Colonel, I was then 18 years young.
