When Marine corporal Shane Burke was in high school, he was wild.

“I liked to party a lot, I got in a lot of fights,” Burke said. “I was hanging out with the older crowd… I just like partying and I love adrenaline rushes. I was just a handful.”

Burke wasn’t sure if college was the right thing for him. The military, however, seemed attractive.

“The military let me step back from all this pressure of going to college and needing to know what you wanted to do,” Burke said. “The military just let me find myself and helped me figure out what I wanted to do in life and what direction I wanted to go. It gave me a lot of discipline and maturity, because when I was in high school I was kind of out of control. I was crazy.”

After graduating a semester early in 2014, Burke headed off to Marine Corps boot camp at Camp Pendleton in California.

“Camp Pendleton is huge,” Burke said. “It goes from San Clemente all the way to Oceanside. It’s about 30, 40 miles long.”

After attending the school of infantry, he was assigned to the third battalion, fifth Marines. In 2015, he was deployed.

“We went to the [demilitarized zone between North and South Korea] and we stayed there for months on end just waiting for something to happen,” Burke said. “Then, we went to Fuji to train with the Japanese. Then we went to Okinawa for a little bit.”

His first deployment passed uneventfully and soon it was back to Camp Pendleton for more training.

“We just train, train, train,” Burke said.

Next, he transferred to a sniper platoon and deployed with them in 2016 as part of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

“[For] this one, we were on a boat,” Burke said. “Same exact thing with Korea, we were standing by for whatever was going on there.”

Burke and his battalion started in Japan, sailed around for three months, went to train Australian troops and then sailed around some more. Unfortunately, all that time on board the ship was not ideal.

“The ship was absolutely terrible, not fun at all,” Burke said. “You were sitting in really small quarters. You’re packed in like sardines and to eat you had to wait two hours… Glad it’s over with.”

Although being in conditions like that may not have been the best, Burke still thinks that joining the Marines was the right decision.

“I always want to explore. I always want to travel. I always want to get out of my comfort zone, and that’s how I’ve always felt,” Burke said. “The military definitely lets you do that.”

For his next assignment, Burke will be teaching new recruits how to do basic tasks such as shoot and clear rooms. As always, he is looking forward to the change.

“I love teaching people,” Burke said. “I love just having an effect on other people, especially guys that are going to be Marines… I’m really looking forward to it.”

Following a year of that, Burke hopes to attend school at either Arizona State or Florida State to major in construction management with a minor in entrepreneurship. The long-term vision for Burke is to start his own roofing and construction company, something that should be easier with the help of veteran’s loans.

Another perk of military service is that Burke will not have to pay for college tuition at a public university.
“I feel like if you go straight into college, you’re kind of wasting money, because not a lot of seventeen year olds know what they really want to do with themselves,” Burke said.

Looking back, Burke would recommend the Marines.

“I feel likes it’s good for pretty much anyone, it just gives you discipline and respect for authority,” Burke said. “That’s what I wanted to see in myself and I definitely got what I wanted out of it… I always liked shooting guns… I wanted to be a Marine. I just wanted to earn that title and have that title for the rest of my life. I wanted direction in my life. I had no idea what I really wanted besides I wanted to go to school, but it was a lot of money.”

His advice for those still in high school and wondering about the future is derived from experience in the same situation.

“Stay focused. Take everything seriously because even though it doesn’t seem so relevant at the time, it will make a huge difference in the outcome of your life and how successful you are,” Burke said. “Try to mature and every day you should try to learn something. Open your eyes, stop being so close-minded.”