This book, One of the Few, The Proud, The Marines, follows my life from birth to my retirement after twenty-four years in the Marine Corps. This book, however, is not about my life. The objective of this book is to show you, the reader, what is takes, what you must do, and what you go through to become a professional Marine. Out of the thousands of men who enter the Marine Corps each year, only a few deserve the right to be called a professional Marine. Some make a career of the Corps and even stay in long enough to retire, but they never reach their goal of being a professional. I believe I deserve that right. You be the judge.