Hey, welcome to a “Marine Helping Veterans” website! I’m glad you have arrived and I look forward to helping you in any way I can!
Where It All Started
I’m from a small town in Wisconsin where folks either worked in a factory at a neighboring town, were farmers, or had some form of manual labor job. My parents both worked and provided enough for us that we never felt like we lacked anything.
I learned some of my father’s trade as a flooring mechanic; carpet installation, tile installation, linoleum, etc. However, that is not what I wanted to do after high school. My oldest brother had gone in the Army and due to a motorcycle accident was given 100% medical disability. All of my father’s brothers took part in WWII and had all returned home safely.
In the middle of my senior year of high school I decided to join the US Marine Corps. I enlisted with one of my school friends thinking we would be together and be able to share experiences over the next four years.
In July 1980 I went to San Diego to become a Marine!
Not knowing any better I enlisted with an open contract and went to cook school after basic training.
As opportunity presented itself I started taking college classes immediately to work towards my bachelor’s degree. Thanks to this I met a senior NCO who asked if I would like to learn a foreign language. Well, duh! Who would say no to that?
I changed MOS’s (jobs) and became a translator for Chinese Mandarin. Later in my career I went back to language school to learn Korean. I also took university classes for Japanese every time I was stationed in Japan; a total of six years. There is some US Marine Corps training that even Marines don’t know about.
After 18 years in the Marine Corps I received my B.S. in Computer Science, thanks Marine Corps! 🙂
As I approached my end of enlistment in July 2000, I was very lucky! My executive commander allowed me the time to prepare for my next career starting about three months before “retirement”. Believe me, that is not normal. Most of the time I saw people working at their job right up until the time they took their final vacation prior to ending their enlistment.
It was a scary time as I had a wife and daughter in middle school and was in Japan at the time asking to retire from there so I could get an IT job in Asia.
Once again luck/opportunity struck! Let me define that!
What that means is that my preparation and networking with people paid off and if it wasn’t for a friend of mine I would have been out of the military without a job, overseas. Thanks, Bobby!
In July 2000 I started my career in the IT field and at the same time became a “retired Marine Corps veteran.”
One of the downsides to retiring as a Marine Corps Staff Sergeant is that 50% of your base pay does not equal a lot. It was enough to make our house payments, but that was about it.
I Want to Pay It Forward
I do not know where I would be if I hadn’t had the help from Bobby! I want to be able to help you as you prepare for retirement or if you aren’t retiring but just leaving the service help you with the transition.
I know it is a scary time and sometimes it is hard to figure out where to go or what to do with the skills you have gained while in the military. I’ve been there, done that, and wear the T-shirt.
I believe what we have here will enable you to start building an online business and take away the anxiety of moving from the military back into the civilian world.
My Mission With Marine Helping Veterans
The goal of my website is to first introduce you to the online business world.
I want to be the one stop place to go to get the answers you need to make it work with an online affiliate marketing site.
If you ever need a hand or have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to help you out.
Semper Fi,
Les Waller
Leave a Reply