Marine Officer - Capt Carrie Batson

<span> <p> <img style="float: none;" src="http://assets2.marines.com/assetmgr/image/disp/inline/size/460x259/id/3595" alt="Capt Carrie Batson <br /> Public Affairs Officer" /><h2>Choosing to Become a Marine Officer</h2>Batson1Becoming 1:24<br /> <br /> Capt Carrie Batson:<br /> Service was very important to my family and so I knew that when I graduated college that I wanted to do some kind of service. Not only was I drawn to the Marine Corps, what it stood for and its values, but I also thought that it offered me a great opportunity for personal growth. I really didn´t know that much about the Marine Corps growing up. I really didn´t know that much about it actually in college. It wasn´t until a good friend of mine from high school joined the Marine Corps; he enlisted. And so during college I went down to watch him graduate at MCRD San Diego. And when I was on that base and when I watched the graduation, there was something, I don´t know, something that kind of clicked for me.<br /> <br /> When I did research about the Marine Corps, I found, you know, there were a lot of things that were very appealing to me. The sense of service to country, helping others, the sense of camaraderie, being part of a team, doing something that´s bigger than yourself. I also learned that, you know, I had - it would give me an opportunity to travel all around the world and to see and meet different people on different cultures and that it would give me a challenge. It would really, I guess, test my abilities, not just my, you know, physical abilities, but also kind of my mental abilities and push me to the limit, see how far I could go.<br /> <br /> I attended Officer Candidates School the summer between my junior and senior year. So right after my junior year, I went to OCS for 10 weeks. After I got done with that, I finished off my senior year in college and graduated, and then was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps.<br /> <hr /><h2>Working in Community Relations</h2>Batson2Deployment 2:18<br /> <br /> Capt Carrie Batson:<br /> My first job in the fleet was at the 1st Marine Division. I was put in charge of the Community Relations Office, which is oftentimes where new lieutenants will start. We would coordinate speaking requests, say if there was a parade out in town, or say there was a certain event out in town and the members of the that event wanted to have, say, a static display of Marine aircraft or tanks or, you know, ground equipment, we would coordinate that.<br /> <br /> When I was at Camp Pendleton, there was really no typical day. For example, I could be serving, advising my Commanding Officer on a situation, you know, from a communication perspective what I think we should or should not do in this situation. I could be answering media queries. I could be escorting media around the installation. I could be reviewing articles that my Marines have written, reviewing photos and video that they´ve taken.<br /> <br /> After working at the 1st Marine Division, I went to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which essentially is a unit comprised of about 2,200 Marines and what we do is we get aboard three Navy amphibious assault ships and we sail around the world, waiting for something good or bad to happen, you know. Say, for example, we need to respond to combat operations, we can be there. During combat operations it was my job to make sure that the American people, the Iraqi people understood what was happening, why we were doing what we were doing, what was going on, making sure that we were giving them information, making sure that what I was doing was helping the Marine Corps succeed in its mission. Say a disaster happens, an earthquake happens or, you know, a tsunami happens, we can be there to provide disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.<br /> <br /> On one of my deployments, my Marine Expeditionary Unit went to East Timor and we conducted one of the largest humanitarian assistance operations in that country for some time. We rebuilt schools. We rebuilt medical and dental clinics. I mean, it was an incredible experience because when you are on the ground, you see there was this need and to be able to go into the country and work with the local people and try to make their living environment better, I mean it was really just an incredible experience. I think every Marine who was there felt very good about what we were doing. I definitely had the sense that, you know, what I´m doing matters, what I´m doing makes a difference-it´s having an impact.<br /> <hr /><h2>Assignment at the Pentagon</h2>Batson3MOS :42<br /> <br /> Capt Carrie Batson:<br /> Right now I´m stationed in the Pentagon and I work in the Division of Public Affairs. And essentially what I´m doing is communication planning. I am doing long-term communication planning for issues, events, topics that are important to the Marine Corps. The first thing I´m gonna do is research. I want to understand the situation, the environment. I want to listen, I want to hear what people think about things, what people´s views are about what the Marine Corps is doing, what their perceptions are, because it´s only really when we know that that we can now move forward and create a plan about, for example, how do we better communicate what we do? How do we better communicate why we´re doing it? Before we can do that, we need to understand what people know.<br /> <hr /><h2>Lifelong Skills</h2>Batson4Leadership :48<br /> <br /> Capt Carrie Batson:<br /> The Marine Corps gives you leadership experience right from day one; the day you join the Marine Corps you are expected to be a leader. That is experience that you won´t necessarily always get in other jobs. When I got to the fleet, I definitely faced situations and circumstances that I had not faced before in training. But I will tell you that training gave me the baseline; it gave me the foundation to know what I needed to do. It gave me the tools to help me figure out what I need to do and to succeed with whatever that situation was.<br /> <br /> You´ll kind of be imbued with the sense of excellence, that everything that you do should be the best, that you should give it your all, that you need to work as a team. These are all things that apply to any environment, not just the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps really gives you lifelong skills.<br /> <hr /> </p> </span>

What I’m doing matters. What I’m doing makes a difference; it’s having an impact.
—Capt Carrie Batson

Commissioned: 1999
Commissioning Program: Officer Candidate Course
Education: Pepperdine University, San Diego State University

In nine years as a Public Affairs Officer, Captain Carrie Batson has earned a number of positions with great responsibility. She’s held billets managing the TV station at Camp Pendleton, working with journalists in Iraq and planning Marine Corps communications in the Pentagon.

Her resume is impressive, but for Capt Batson, the benefits of being a Marine extend far beyond her career. While on deployment, she participated in humanitarian efforts to rebuild schools, witnessed the impact of her work firsthand and helped shape history. Above all, the Marine Corps provides her with constant opportunities for challenge and reward.

Marines. The Few. The Proud.

Capt Carrie Batson
Public Affairs Officer

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Marines. The Few. The Proud.

Capt Carrie Batson Public Affairs Officer

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Capt Carrie Batson
Public Affairs Officer