By Joyce Coronel
Lance Corporal Caleb Halliwill and Staff Sargeant Joscha Ely, arrayed in crisp uniforms and bedecked with service ribbons, stood at attention. Eighty pairs of eyes watched in rapt silence as the two young men marched to the front of the room, spun on their heels, saluted, and then methodically folded an American flag.
But these were no ordinary military men.
Halliwill, 12, and Ely, 15, belong to Young Marines, a national youth organization aimed at boys and girls ages 8-18. The organization has been instilling core values such as leadership, self-discipline, teamwork and service since 1959.
The flag-folding ceremony was the highlight of the morning at the Kid Zone summer program underway at Kyrene de la Mariposa Elementary School in Tempe. Ahead of the ceremony, staff handed out miniature flags, USA placards and patriotic-themed hats and headbands.
“Do we get to keep these?” one girl asked with a note of hopefulness.
Aaron Villicana, Kid Zone program manager at Mariposa, smiled and told her yes.
“I’d venture to say that we are the only Kid Zone program that is doing this special presentation,” Villicana said. “You are some of the only kids in the Kid Zone program who get to participate in this special thing.”
Villicana spent several minutes at the beginning of the assembly working with the 80 youngsters in an effort to get them settled and focused. There were hand motions, phrases to repeat and still more hand motions. Dana Lippincott, unit commander for the East Valley Young Marines, had a slightly different approach.
“Eyes and ears?” Lippincott bellowed.
Halliwill and Ely instantly responded: “Clear! Open!”
“That means they’re ready to receive any information or learn anything that I need to tell them,” Lippincott explained to the audience. “So when I have a group of 300 or 400 Young Marines across the nation, they all know this.”
With each painstaking fold of the flag, the unit commander explained the significance. Honoring mothers, fathers and veterans, and paying homage to religious principles such as belief in the resurrection, were a few of the meanings attached to the ceremony.
Afterwards, Villicana announced there was time for questions. Hands shot in the air.
“Do you have to wake up early?”
“What are the little squares on your uniform for?”
“Where do you sleep?”
Ely had a ready response for these and many others. “We’re regular kids. We sleep at home. Our meetings are at night.”
And all those colorful little squares pinned to the left side of their shirts? Those are service ribbons, awarded for completion of requirements and for various achievements.
There are ribbons for service, academic excellence, leadership, first aid, drug-resistance education and more.
Neither Halliwill nor Ely plan on a future in the military, but they both spoke of the sense of camaraderie and discipline they’ve found in the Young Marines. Should they change their minds and one day enlist, upon completion of boot camp, they’d be eligible to bump up a rank.
“The Young Marines is not a program where we are trying to make you into military,” Ely said. “We’re trying to make you the best citizen you can be. We’re trying to make you into the best person you can be.”
Members of the East Valley Young Marines meet weekly during the school year and every other week during the summer. “We take recruits all the time,” Lippincott said. There are graduations twice a year, and recruits have 26 weeks to complete their basic training. Toward the end of the 26 weeks, there’s a camping trip.
Halliwill, the younger of the two, especially liked the Young Marines’ notion of revelry: banging on pots and pans first thing in the morning inside their tents.
“They learn to march, stand at attention—the very basic things, what the Young Marines are and how you are supposed to be a Young Marine, Ely said. A corporal or above usually does the training.
The unit stays busy performing flag ceremonies for organizations all over the Valley, particularly around holidays such as the Fourth of July, Veterans Day and Memorial Day.
In December, they’ll travel to Hawaii to commemorate the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Plans are underway for them to spend one night aboard the USS Missouri, the now decommissioned battleship on which the Japanese surrendered Sept. 2, 1945.
“We’re going to stay (in Hawaii) for seven days and do the wreath-laying ceremony. The Young Marines do it every year,” Lippincott said. “This year is special because it’s the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.”
A woman whose husband was a WWII veteran has requested that the East Valley Young Marines perform a memorial ceremony for her husband while they are there.
Information: eastvalleyyoungmarines.com
