Sarah Christensen

Professor Alfred Humphreys

History 1700
21 March 2016
Jerry Tso
Jerry Tso was born in 1971 and had a rough life growing up. Jerry was
bullied in school because he was considered short and nerdy. Because of this,
Jerry had a hard time making friends, but still enjoyed school. While he was
growing up, Jerry mostly looked up to his uncle. Jerry married in his life, but
unfortunately, they split up. The two never successfully had kids.
Jerry joined the Marine Corps in in 1990. There were many contributing
factors to why Jerry had decided he wanted to join that we discussed. First of
all, he wanted the honor of serving his country. Secondly, his uncle, whom I
mentioned he looked up to previously, was in the Marine Corps. While
growing up, his uncle was tough and successful and Jerry wanted to be like
that. His family and much of his extended family was very poor and barely
made enough to get by. Jerry knew that he wanted to make more of himself
for his future family. He decided that he needed to continue the military ties
on his family tree. Lastly, being bullied during his young years influenced
Jerry to join the military so he could fight for the people and the country he
believed in and loved.
Jerry joined the Marine Corps when he was 19-years-old and
immediately went to boot camp. He actually went to boot camp twice before

he was able to complete it. In 1990, jerry went to boot camp at the MCRD in
San Diego, CA. Jerry was discharged just one day before graduation due to
family matters and had to leave right away. Knowing he didnt want to give
up, Jerry went back to boot camp in 1991 and completed that in 13 total
weeks. After boot camp, soldiers receive a one week leave and then go back
for a month long combat field training.
The first time Jerry went to boot camp he had a hard time adjusting. He
explained that there is a lot of exercise involved and they hardly got any
sleep. Even though he had a tough time adjusting, he did make it through
and said it got much easier as the weeks went on. During boot camp, Jerry
explained there were quite a few regulations and rules. Boot camp will
prepare you to be a man, or a woman. It will teach you teamwork and drill
the code of conduct into your head. Jerrys favorite part of boot camp was
drilling, which he explained to me as marching. The worst part about boot
camp was the lack of sleep. While doing a PT test, Jerry out ran the drill
instructors by running a 16 min, 3 mile run. The one moment Jerry will never
forget was putting on his dress blues before graduation. He felt a strong
sense of pride and said nothing compared to that moment. Not even wearing
the most expensive tuxedo.
I asked Jerry what military job he had. He said he was in infantry the
first time he went to boot camp. He chose this because this is the job his
uncle did. Jerry admitted that movies also influenced this decision. During his
second round at boot camp, Jerry was a metal worker, or a welder. He was a

metal worker because he was assigned an open contract. He also was

trained to be a marksmanship instructor due to his high shooting scores.
Jerry was deployed once during his military career. In 1995, he was
deployed to Somalia for Operation United Shield for a peacekeeping mission
after the Black Hawk Down, also known as Battle of Mogadishu. He went
there as a maintenance man and did various tasks that related to
maintenance. We did not discuss what happened in Somalia because Jerry
didnt wish to. Jerry was in Somalia for three months during that operation.
Afterwards, Jerry was stationed in Okinawa, Japan for one year. During this
time he was a marksmanship instructor. He explained they had long days
and long hours. The soldiers woke up at 3 AM each morning to take the
shooters to the gun range. After all was said and done, they didnt get back
home until 9 PM each night.
From deployment and being stationed overseas, Jerry learned many
different cultures and different laws in other countries. He explained how
thankful he was to be an American and that he, as well as many of us, take
our freedom for granted every day. He found a new way to look at life from
being away. While he was gone, he really missed home. Where he grew up
there was always a neighbor dog barking, but where he went, you didnt hear
a dog for miles. This was one thing that stood out to him. Jerry missing being
with his family since in his culture it is all about family and spending time
with them.

In 1997 Jerry was honorably discharged. Since serving he was a ship

builder with a place called Abigail Shipyard. After that he was a wild land
firefighter for Navaho Scouts Wildland and the Navaho Hotshots. Lastly, Jerry
was a welder, and currently a welding inspector. Currently, he works for SME
Steel Contractors. Jerry attended school with the University of Maryland,
Texas A & M, and New Mexico State University. He originally went to school to
become a math teacher until he realized the salary of a teacher. He is
currently attending SLCC majoring in Non-Destructive Testing.
Since being in the Military, Jerry has learned to take pride in the work
he does. He respects his superiors as well as his colleagues. Jerry learned
how to cooperate, work in a team, and manage his time wisely. The military
helped him in his career because he learned how to weld in the military. He
now uses that skill every day and has in his ship building career, also. While
in the military he learned quite a bit about management. This helped him get
promoted easier in his jobs. Joining the military was disrespecting his Navaho
culture because in his culture you are to not sign contracts. However, he
would not take this back. He is very glad that he served and would not
change it for anything.
Since Jerry did not wish to discuss the events that happened in
Somalia, I respected that. I went ahead and did my own research on the
Battle of Mogadishu and Operation United Shield. Battle of Mogadishu
started after starvation was running rapid through Somalia following a large
governmental change. The United Nations stepped in to support Somalia and

offer relief, also known as Operation Provide Relief. The United Nations
struggled to get food to those that needed and called in for help from the
United States. Originally, President Bush sent in 25,000 troops, but that was
later drew back to 1200 troops by President Clinton. On August 8, 1993, four
United States military police were killed after a land mine exploded.
Following that, six more soldiers were wounded in Somalia. After that, we
deployed the Task Force Ranger in August. In October 1993, led by General
Garrison, Task force Ranger raided the Olympic Hotel in Mogadishu to search
for Aidid. 18 United States soldiers were killed and 84 wounded in a
seventeen-hour battle.
To bring conclusion to the United Nations operation in Somalia, the US
military and United Nations military combined Task Forces to ensure safe
evacuation of all military forces the United Nations. During this time there
were about 2,500 troops from Pakistan to Bangladesh. The United States
sent 4,000 military personnel, including 2,600 United States Marines to
assist, this was known as Operation United Shield, which Jerry part of.
The Battle of Mogadishu was never meant to happen. They planned a
raid to last about one hour to arrest the leader, Aidid. This battle we believe
has made it possible, if not better, for al-Qaida to train an entire generation
of Somalis to Islamist fundamentalists. Since this took place, the United
States military has significantly improved their technology and procedures
when it comes to missions and raids. They stated that if this battled
happened today, it would have been less deadly and ended better. Going

into raids and fights, they can be as prepared as they want, but something
could and will always go wrong.

Works Cited:
http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his135/Events/Somalia93/somalia93.ht
ml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_United_Shield
http://www.npr.org/2013/10/05/229561805/what-a-downed-black-hawk-insomalia-taught-america