Last promotion from last recruit

11 Feb 2006 | Staff Sgt. Trent Kinsey Marine Corps Recruiting Command

Many Marines are familiar with the phrase, “it’s a small Corps,”  but there are two Marines, who — through their career — have been witness to how small it can be.

One of the Marines promoted to master gunnery sergeant in December was done so by the last Marine he enlisted as a canvassing recruiter.

But for Master Gunnery Sgt. Eric G. Martin, Operations Chief, Recruiting  Station Charleston, and Capt. Christopher N. Kinsey, executive officer, RS Charleston, this promotion was another notch in the 18-year history the two Marines share.

They originally met in the small town of Minerva, Ohio, when Kinsey was just a freshman in high school, and Martin was on recruiting duty, assigned to Permanent Contact Station Alliance, Ohio.

“I had two poolees from that school,” said the recruiter of 18 years.  “I was doing a lunchroom setup and they said, ‘you have to meet this kid.’  So they brought him over.”

Martin said he remembered meeting Kinsey as a freshman with a high-and-tight haircut, wearing a Marine Corps shirt.

“He would pull people out of the lunchroom to talk to me,” said Martin.

One of the people Kinsey brought to Martin’s attention was his brother, Greg, and soon after, his brother was enlisted in the infantry.  Kinsey followed.

“He was the last person I put in as a recruiter,” said Martin, a Utica, N.Y., native.  Soon after Kinsey was in the Delayed Entry Program, Martin was moved to Recruiting Sub-station Norwalk, where he took over the duties as staff noncommissioned officer-in-charge.

But, even after Kinsey began his Marine Corps career, the two families kept in touch.
“Minerva’s a small community,” said Martin.  “We would see his parents a lot.”

More than nine years in the career of then Staff Sgt. Kinsey, Martin received a call from his last recruit.  Martin then traveled to Quantico, Va., to be present when Kinsey was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps, December 1999.

“He was the first Marine to salute me,” Kinsey said, reflecting back on the ceremony.

A few years later Martin said he was on the Contact Team at 4th Marine Corps District when Kinsey began looking into recruiting duty billets.  Martin was sent to RS Charleston to become the operation chief not long after.

In just a little more than two years after Kinsey’s arrival at RS Charleston, Martin was selected to be promoted to master gunnery sergeant.  Martin approached the last person he enlisted in the Marines and asked if he would promote the career recruiter to his last rank in the Marine Corps.

“It was inspiring having the last recruit I put in promoting me,” said Martin.  “It tells you how time flies when this kid you put in is now standing before you as a Captain.”

“It was an honor to promote not just a Marine, but a master gunnery sergeant; since it is his last rank,” said Kinsey.

Marine Corps Recruiting Command