Marine of the Year

[thedrifter]

Marine of the Year
Submitted by: MCB Camp Pendleton
Story Identification Number: 200372419537
Story by Pfc. Samuel Palmer



MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.(July 24, 2003) -- He gives his all to his Marines - a model for the core values of honor, courage and commitment. And he gave his bone marrow to a complete stranger.

Those contributions are among the reasons why a Camp Pendleton Marine has been selected as the Marine Corps Times' Marine of the Year.

Staff Sgt. Karl C. Garrison, organics chief at Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity, was summoned to his commanding officer's desk when the unit received word he had won.

Garrison didn't know he had been nominated until his wife, Estella M. Garrison, stepped up and admitted she had nominated him in February while he was on Temporarily Assigned Duty in Florida.

"He did something other than the norm. He was a bone marrow donor," Mrs. Garrison said. "It was an act of selflessness."

Garrison, a native of Twin Bridges, Mont., initially signed up for the bone marrow donor program in 1994, when a fellow Marine's daughter needed a donor. He's remained on the list - eager to help someone whose life is on the line - ever since.

Last November, Garrison finally received the call.

His bone marrow matched a patient's at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He caught the first flight out of town and underwent a series of exams and tests at the university.

Two days after answering the call, he was donating his bone marrow to someone he'd never met or even spoken to.

"If you can do something, why wouldn't you," said Garrison. "I try to let (junior Marines) know that if they have problems, they can come to me with them."

He tries to pass on good morals by teaching junior Marines to point out wrong wherever they see it.

Garrison accepted the award July 10 in Washington, D.C.

Between ceremonies and media interviews stemming from his selection, Garrison spent a day with his family to visit Washington's monuments and museums. The honor included limousine service, which took him to visit landmarks such as the National Air and Space Museum, the Vietnam War Memorial, the White House and the Washington Monument.

"It was an amazing experience to be able to take my family to Washington, D.C.," said Garrison. "The National Air and Space Museum was the top priority, because that was the one place my son wanted to go the most."

Garrison called his son Tristan, 6, his "main priority." He takes him on camping trips, coaches soccer and is a den leader for his son's local Boy Scout troop.

He tries to instill the same positive messages in youths that his father imparted years ago:

"No matter who is around you, do the right thing because it is the right thing to do," he said.

Sempers,

Roger