Frank Demith is a retired Army veteran who served on active duty for twenty-eight years. He graduated from the United States Military Academy and later worked on the Department of the Army team that developed the Army interpreter/translator program. He is a graduate of the Deliberate Discomfort Challenge and is a member of the Endless 6. In his free time, he enjoys reading history and fiction novels, visiting battlefields, and playing the saxophone. He currently lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia with his wife and their four dogs.
My name is David Willis, I knew at a very early age that I was going into the military but didn’t know what branch. As I got older and started learning about each branch and quickly figured out that the Marines was the best. I served in the Marine Corps from 97-04. My MOS was 0311(infantry). I went to Paris Island for boot camp after boot camp I was stationed with 2nd blt 8th Marines Golf company. While with 2/8 I went on several deployments to port a prince Haiti, Okinawa, South Korea, Greece, also did two trips to Bridgeport California for cold weather training, I wasn’t going to make a Mediterranean float so I extended and joined 1st blt 8th Marines Bravo company. During my time there we deployed to the Mediterranean and had stops in Spain, Italy, Malta, Africa, and other ports. I got out of the Marines in August of 01, but 9/11 happened and was recalled to go back in where I was stationed with a mobilization support battalion and deployed.