Marine Officer - Capt Lynn Berendsen

<span> <p> <img style="float: none;" src="http://assets2.marines.com/assetmgr/image/disp/inline/size/460x259/id/253764" alt="Capt Lynn Berendsen <br /> Amphibious Assault Vehicle Officer" /><h2>Going in, Full Force</h2>Berendsen1Becoming :50<br /> <br /> Capt Lynn Berendsen:<br /> I grew up in a rural area. Had a great childhood, a lot of good friends. Every weekend in the summer I spent working in my parents´ garden or in the farm on the fields. Every day in the winter we cut wood to heat our house. Hard work was something that I was brought up with.<br /> <br /> <br /> When I graduated high school I decided that I was going to go straight to college. Each year that I was there I became less sure of what I wanted to do with my life and more ready for a change. I decided I would join the Marine Corps.<br /> <br /> If you want to be a Marine, you can´t go into it thinking it might be something you want to do in the future. You have to jump into it two feet in, full force ahead. This is not a, it´s not a job-it´s a vocation, it´s a career. It´s much more than anything else I´ve ever done and anything else you´ll ever do.<br /> <hr /><h2>Leading by Example</h2>Berendsen2Leadership :42<br /> <br /> Capt Lynn Berendsen:<br /> In the Marine Corps, leadership is what officers do at any rank and any MOS at any grade. For us to keep the Marines around you calm and involved in what you´re doing, the number one thing to do is lead by example. You´re thinking about the 45 other Marines that are dependent upon you. You´re outward focused; you focus on what the Marines need from you and you´re much more calm.<br /> <br /> The Marine Corps will certainly build your leadership experiences and build you as a leader. The Marine Corps´ training process asks people to make decisions all the time in situations that are not comfortable. When it´s hot, when you´re tired, when somebody´s shooting at you. And that builds a leader-leaders and the ability to make decisions.<br /> <br /> <hr /><h2>Serving as an Amphibious Assault Officer</h2>Berendsen3MOS 1:07<br /> <br /> Capt Lynn Berendsen:<br /> I´m a 1803 Amphibious Assault Vehicle Officer. Essentially I´m in charge of the Marines that take the amphibious assault vehicle from the ship to the shore and then provide heavy machine gun support to the infantry inland and anywhere else they want to go. It´s designed specifically for driving off the back of a ship, floating in under power to a beach, landing on a beach that may be opposed by hostile forces with people shooting at you. And then moving inland anywhere to 300 miles inland on a tank of gas. You have a crew of three Marines that drive and operate the vehicle. And then about 20 combat loaded infantrymen in the back that you´re supporting. <br /> <br /> You might patrol for eight hours or so in a day with very little breaks in a hot, sweaty environment with all kinds of protective gear on. At the end of your rotation, you´ll come back and you have probably two hours of maintenance work to do to make sure your vehicle is ready to go the next day, then sleep for the night and get briefed the next morning and start all over again.<br /> <hr /><h2>Training Many as One</h2>Berendsen4Teamwork :39<br /> <br /> Capt Lynn Berendsen:<br /> You have to rely on your team to get you through. And that´s a big part of the training that we do: starting off at OCS, train the Marines together as a team so they can operate as one. And that way you know that the guy next to you has your back or has your front, because if you don´t operate as a team and you´re not looking in that 360-degree environment, then somebody has the potential to lose their life.<br /> <br /> As a leader of Marines, as an officer particularly, it gives you the ability to take a bunch of raw young men and women and mold them into a group, a team, that can forge ahead and accomplish just about anything that´s ever asked of them.<br /> <hr /> </p> </span>

To keep the Marines around you calm and involved in what you’re doing, the number one thing to do is lead by example.
—Capt Lynn Berendsen

Enlisted: 1995
Commissioned:2001
Commissioning Program: Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program
Education: University of Kansas

During his college years, Captain Lynn Berendsen found himself searching for a greater challenge. He found it in 1995 when he chose to leave school and enlist in the Marine Corps.

Five years, two deployments and three promotions later, he knew he was ready to finish his education and pursue a commission as a Marine Officer. He returned to the University of Kansas and by the end of 2001, he had achieved both goals.

Capt Berendsen has deployed all over the world and become an expert on the technical and tactical capabilities of the AAV. He will deploy to Iraq as a staff officer and return to the U.S. to command a company. As a leader, he has developed the ability to stay calm and make decisions in high pressure situations, and to lead his Marines by example.

Marines. The Few. The Proud.

Capt Lynn Berendsen
Amphibious Assault Vehicle Officer

Related Pages

Marines. The Few. The Proud.

Capt Lynn Berendsen Amphibious Assault Vehicle Officer

Related Pages

Capt Lynn Berendsen
Amphibious Assault Vehicle Officer