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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Since We Asked Sports Tempo Weather Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Readers Choice 2006 Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Our Valley Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend June 11, 2006 He'll step in familiar footprints By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune Come Monday, Ryan Greene will be beating feet for a set of yellow footprints. A Medford native who graduated from St. Marys High School on June 2, he is among the raw recruits marching bravely into the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot in San Diego tomorrow. He signed up for six years with the Marine Reserves. "I'm a little nervous because I've never done anything like this before," he acknowledges. "I've never really been away from home for an extended period of time. "But, more than nervous, I'm excited. I want to go. I'm ready to do this." Anyone who has stood quivering on those yellow footprints knows the bright, likeable young man is in for an experience he will never, ever forget. The footprints are painted on the parade deck near where recruits are unloaded from a bus fresh from the airport. Drill instructors, bellowing expletives that would make a logger blush, invite wide-eyed recruits still covered with civilian slime to get their posteriors off the bus and onto those yellow footprints. The platoon of footprints are at a perfect 45-degree angle for the lowly bipeds who don't know where to put their feet while standing at attention. For me, those tracks led to what would become Platoon 2052 shepherded by drill instructors Gunnery Sgt. Smith and Staff Sgts. Lynch and McCabe. It was 1969 at zero dark thirty. Their rabid, snarling faces writhing in fury as the trio threw startled stragglers from the bus still haunt me. We stood in those footprints until dawn. Waiting. Wondering. Worrying. But Greene, 18, the son of Anne and stepson of Robert Greene of Medford, is no average recruit. Fact is, he is a former drill instructor, albeit with the local Young Marines program. Active in the program throughout high school, he rose to sergeant major, the highest rank within the group in Oregon. While in school, where he played football and basketball and ran track for four years, earning 12 varsity letters, he wrote a senior research paper on the role of the Marines in the Pacific Theater during World War II. One of those Marines was his maternal grandfather, Robert N. Burns, of Etna, Calif. Burns was wounded on Iwo Jima. Greene was one of two Young Marines who was selected for the national Jimmy Trimble award and scholarship, named for a Marine killed on Iwo Jima. That resulted in a trip to Washington, D.C., with his family, followed by another all-expense paid trip to Iwo Jima where he stood in the footsteps of his grandfather. "My grandfather passed away 10 years ago — I have vague memories of him," he says. "But I've heard stories about what he did on Iwo Jima. I wanted to see what he saw." He can tell you legions about Corps history, clear back to its founding at Tuns Tavern in Philadelphia where it all started on Nov. 10, 1775, to Chesty Puller's incomparable feats that are devil-dog legend. He is what we jarheads would have called "gung-ho," "squared away," "hard core." "I do know what to expect a little bit more than other people," he says of basic training. "I know it's not personal, that they want to break you down and build you up stronger than you were.' He isn't bragging, just being plain spoken. He looks you directly in the eye when talking. "I know it's going to be hard," he says. "It will be physically and mentally challenging. I'm just going to go with the flow." The flow, he'll suspects correctly, won't always be smooth in basic. "They definitely play head games with you," he says. "Every now and then you might hear stories of somebody getting hit, but the DI's aren't there to be your friend or make sure you have a good time." Once again, he hits the bull's eye. "I want to be a grunt so I'll know what it feels like," he says. "If I do become an officer, I will have more knowledge, having gotten my face in the mud, than someone coming out of ROTC with their butter bars and thinking they are hot stuff." Spoken like a veteran ground pounder. He explains that he joined the reserves so he could be done with his training in time to start college this fall at Western Oregon University. He plans to major in business administration. "I wanted to be able to support myself in case I decide not to make a career out of the Marines," he says. "If it turns out not to be something I want to stay in, I'll do my time and then move on." I'm betting the yellow footprints fit. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or at [email protected] Advertisement s Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. 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