By Kate E. Salute
"We're a close knit family," said Colvin, "I missed them a lot. They sent letters and videos and you could see and hear that they were worried about me and that was the hardest part for me."
But letters from family were just a portion of the mail Colvin received in Iraq. Students from Davison Avenue School in Malverne and Jennie E. Hewitt School in Rockville Centre also wrote letters to Colvin, a Chaminade graduate who also attended Our Lady of Lourdes School.
"For me, doing what I do is just normal, it's what I've been trained to do," he said, humbly. "But when you get these letters from these kids saying that you are a hero, it makes you feel like what you are doing is different and important."
The decision to join the Marine ROTC was simple for Colvin. "I thought, if I'm going to do something in service, I would do the toughest, most prestigious one, so I chose the Marines." After his college graduation from Holy Cross, Colvin had only three months to train a platoon before departing for Iraq where, he says, 85 percent of the work his platoon did was training the Iraqi army to be a capable force when the U.S. pulls out of the area.
While Colvin won't be returning to Iraq, he still has two years of non-deployable service left. He says, "I love my job, it's the best thing I've ever done."
Photos courtesy Allison Creagh
