Roegge, Martinez & Santiago
What do you do when you’re trained for the worst-case scenario but find yourself in the best?
There is a group of Marines here at FOB Payne that operates the “High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.” Both the system and the guys are referred to as the “Hi-Mars”.
When called to action, the Hi-Mars scramble to their location and can fire two hundred pound rockets from the back of their launcher vehicles in less than two minutes flat. The rockets are GPS guided and designed to annihilate enemy hideouts. So far, this group hasn’t had any bunkers to bust, but they’re always at the ready.
Keeping the Marines focused when times are good is the job of Platoon Commander and Fire Direction Officer Lt Shon Roegge. He has the Hi-Mars running drills for hours, both morning and night, making sure they’re ready to support Marines in the battlefield, when they call for heavy artillery.
Roegge, who is from Rushville, IL, is on his first deployment, his freshness helps to keep the other guys who are on their third and fourth tours going. It’s especially tough for the guys who spend their free time thinking of their families back home, and in some cases children they’ve never seen.
SSgt Carlo Santiago’s wife gave birth to their third child on March 13th. Santiago wasn’t there because Hi-Mars section chief is here on his fourth deployment.
“I think the Marine Corps like me coming back,” he said when asked why he has shipped out so many times.
Platoon Sergeant SSgt Victor Martinez, who is also on his fourth deployment, has missed between 2 and 3 years of his three children’s lives. But they were the reason he signed up in the first place. His wife, gave birth to their first daughter when the couple were just 16. Concerned about how he was going to care for his new family, Martinez joined the Marines. In his 9 years with the Marines, he’s missed wedding anniversaries, birthdays and his daughter’s cheerleading competitions. But, he says, the Corps has made the life he provides for his family possible.