Life After Service

 

Transitioning from the Marine Corps to Civilian Life

 

BY CHRIS BERTIAUX

 

Gabriel Sean Huffman stands 6 foot 4, weighs 270 pounds and wears a size 15 shoe. When he enters a room, everyone is aware his presence. He is a college student, he works full time and he strives to maintain a close relationship with his son in Texas. As he rises to the challenge of balancing these responsibilities, it comes as no surprise that from 2007 to 2011 he was known as Cpl. Huffman of the U.S. Marine Corps.

     Huffman is one of many United States Marine Corps veterans who completed an active duty contract and had to make the transition back to civilian life. Like others, he took advantage of the resources and programs the Marine Corps has to offer that assist with the challenges veterans face when returning the civilian world.

     During his time in the Marine Corps, Huffman was stationed in North Carolina, Japan and Korea, and he was deployed to Iraq in 2009. Toward the end of his active service in 2011, Huffman found out that his girlfriend at the time had given birth to their first child. Although there were several aspects of active service that Huffman did not enjoy, he became thankful for his time in the Marine Corps because he felt it prepared him to be a father. Unfortunately, two years later, his son and his son’s mother moved to Texas.

     After his military service, Huffman used his GI Bill to enroll in Horry Georgetown Technical College, and he transferred to the College of Charleston at the start of his junior year. All veterans without a dishonorable discharge who enroll in school full time qualify for the 9/11 Montgomery GI Bill, but the fund varies based on the amount of active time served. Huffman completed a full contract and spent time in a reserve unit, so all of his college expenses were covered. “I have to maintain a C average and be a full-time student, but my GI Bill covers all my tuition, and I receive a monthly stipend for living expenses,” he explains.

     While he was in school, Huffman worked as a server at Red Lobster and sent money to his son as often as he could.  In his junior year, however, Huffman decided to find a logistics job. During his active service, he was a logistics Marine and dealt with shipping supplies, ammunition, vehicles and other equipment from point A to point B.

He believes that transitioning into the civilian world depends on the job one had in the military.  Infantry troops, for example, endure combat experience, and the skills they develop are not easily transferrable to other fields. “Logistics is easily transferrable, and a company called Crowley Logistics eventually offered me a job because of my military experience,” he says. “I needed a higher income for my son, so I took it.”

     Huffman only has two semesters left until graduation, is working full-time for Crowley Logistics and actively maintains his long-distance relationship with his son. If it was not for the Marine Corps, he says, he would not be where he is today.

     “It gets really challenging sometimes balancing everything,” he says, “but the military set me up for success, set me apart from the crowd and gave me the skills and confidence I needed to take care of my family and myself.”