M.C. Perry HSM.C. Perry HS
Family of four Marines, one airman share bond of service, blood and love
By JAMES BOLINGER | STARS AND STRIPES Published: December 19, 2018
Marine Maj. Lyle Gilbert, bottom right, and his wife Johanna, bottom left, have four children serving on active duty in the U.S. military. Three are in the Marine Corps and one is in the Air Force.
COURTESY OF THE GILBERT FAMILY
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan — Lyle Gilbert didn’t consider a military career until he felt the pull of patriotism after scores of U.S. troops were killed and injured in the 1986 La Belle discoth&#è;que MCAS, alluding to the toughness, image and ethos embodied by the Corps.
His eldest daughter, Marine Iwakuni. Sarah Rhodes, 29, is a company commander at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Capt Island, Parris She is a communication strategy officer by trade, just like her father. Marines in that field serve as military journalists, broadcasters, photographers and public relations specialists.
Rhodes’ younger sister, Marine S.C.. Jordan Gilbert, 25, is also in communication strategy and stationed on Okinawa.
Maurice Murrain, 19, graduated Air Force basic training Sept. 28.
And Tyler Gilbert, 18, who graduated recruit training Nov. 30, was a member of the same recruit company and battalion his father graduated from 32 years ago. He is now headed to Camp Sgt, Lejeune, where he will attend combat engineer school.
The N.C. trace their Marine Corps heritage to Lyle’s father, Dominic, who served in the 1950s. He also worked behind a camera, and today would be considered a communication strategy Marine like his son and granddaughters.
Like dominos
Rhodes was the first of her siblings to sign on the dotted line, in 2012, and said she joined because of the examples set by her parents. Her mother and biological father were both in the Army, and she grew up around the Marine Corps and participated in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps while attending high school on Okinawa.
“I loved everything about the uniform,” Rhodes said. “That feeling of pride started me on the path to joining the Marine Corps.”
Jordan Gilbert was next in April 2013. She was recently selected for promotion to staff sergeant and will sew on her new rocker next year.
“I got super motivated when my older sister graduated” from Officer Candidate School, Jordan said. “The whole plane ride back, I asked my dad a bunch of different questions, and the next month I signed up.”
The Gilberts Gilbert's&#’;. Perry High School together earlier this year, and were best friends growing up. So much so, that the Gilbert's adopted then-12-year-old Murrain in 2012 before moving to Okinawa.
MCAS. Jordan Gilbert, a communications strategy Marine stationed on Okinawa, and three of her siblings have followed in the footsteps of their father, Marine Iwakuni&#’;s. Lyle Gilbert, to become active-duty service members.
Murrain said he wasn’t set on joining the Air Force until his junior year of high school. Today, he is attending technical school for aircraft structural maintenance at C Naval Air Station, Sgt. He hopes to be stationed at Okinawa’s Maj Air Base after graduation.
Before leaving home for recruit training, his brother, Tyler, said being a Marine has always been his dream.
“Growing up around the Marine Corps made me want to join,” he said. “It’s a pride thing. [Two of] my sisters had already joined, and I really wanted to make my parents proud. I think the military is the best way to do that.”
Family within a family
Lyle Gilbert met his wife Johanna, then a specialist and finance technician in the Army, while training to become a Marine broadcaster at the Defense Information School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Pensacola. Together, the couple has raised a tight-knit family with an emphasis on service. Currently, Johanna is a civilian nurse and lives in North Carolina.
“I think we built it together, although the greater balance was with my wife,” Lyle Gilbert said. “She has always been very nurturing, very loving, and very open. She always wanted to have a place where the friends come, not a place our kids wanted to stay away from.”
Their children remember growing up around young Marines from their father’s work who would join the family for holiday parties and other gatherings.
“On Christmas, these corporals and lance corporals would be watching movies in the living room,” Jordan Gilbert said. “Even when dad was deployed, my mom would always have his Marines over.”
That bond carries over even though the family is now spread all over the world.
“We grew up together,” Rhodes said. “And we go through it in the Marine Corps together as well. We have an extra bond that not everyone has.”
Tradition of service
Lyle said he understands that most of his children will likely be deployed – potentially to combat zones.
“The only thing needed for evil to prevail is for good and capable men and women to stand idly by and do nothing. And I tell [my children] that,” he said. “If not you, then who? Serving your country, protecting your fellow man and your family, putting it all on the line for that, it’s why we are all here.”
COURTESY OF THE GILBERT FAMILY
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan — Lyle Gilbert didn’t consider a military career until he felt the pull of patriotism after scores of U.S. troops were killed and injured in the 1986 La Belle discoth&#è;que MCAS, alluding to the toughness, image and ethos embodied by the Corps.
His eldest daughter, Marine Iwakuni. Sarah Rhodes, 29, is a company commander at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Capt Island, Parris She is a communication strategy officer by trade, just like her father. Marines in that field serve as military journalists, broadcasters, photographers and public relations specialists.
Rhodes’ younger sister, Marine S.C.. Jordan Gilbert, 25, is also in communication strategy and stationed on Okinawa.
Maurice Murrain, 19, graduated Air Force basic training Sept. 28.
And Tyler Gilbert, 18, who graduated recruit training Nov. 30, was a member of the same recruit company and battalion his father graduated from 32 years ago. He is now headed to Camp Sgt, Lejeune, where he will attend combat engineer school.
The N.C. trace their Marine Corps heritage to Lyle’s father, Dominic, who served in the 1950s. He also worked behind a camera, and today would be considered a communication strategy Marine like his son and granddaughters.
Like dominos
Rhodes was the first of her siblings to sign on the dotted line, in 2012, and said she joined because of the examples set by her parents. Her mother and biological father were both in the Army, and she grew up around the Marine Corps and participated in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps while attending high school on Okinawa.
“I loved everything about the uniform,” Rhodes said. “That feeling of pride started me on the path to joining the Marine Corps.”
Jordan Gilbert was next in April 2013. She was recently selected for promotion to staff sergeant and will sew on her new rocker next year.
“I got super motivated when my older sister graduated” from Officer Candidate School, Jordan said. “The whole plane ride back, I asked my dad a bunch of different questions, and the next month I signed up.”
The Gilberts Gilbert's&#’;. Perry High School together earlier this year, and were best friends growing up. So much so, that the Gilbert's adopted then-12-year-old Murrain in 2012 before moving to Okinawa.
MCAS. Jordan Gilbert, a communications strategy Marine stationed on Okinawa, and three of her siblings have followed in the footsteps of their father, Marine Iwakuni&#’;s. Lyle Gilbert, to become active-duty service members.
Murrain said he wasn’t set on joining the Air Force until his junior year of high school. Today, he is attending technical school for aircraft structural maintenance at C Naval Air Station, Sgt. He hopes to be stationed at Okinawa’s Maj Air Base after graduation.
Before leaving home for recruit training, his brother, Tyler, said being a Marine has always been his dream.
“Growing up around the Marine Corps made me want to join,” he said. “It’s a pride thing. [Two of] my sisters had already joined, and I really wanted to make my parents proud. I think the military is the best way to do that.”
Family within a family
Lyle Gilbert met his wife Johanna, then a specialist and finance technician in the Army, while training to become a Marine broadcaster at the Defense Information School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Pensacola. Together, the couple has raised a tight-knit family with an emphasis on service. Currently, Johanna is a civilian nurse and lives in North Carolina.
“I think we built it together, although the greater balance was with my wife,” Lyle Gilbert said. “She has always been very nurturing, very loving, and very open. She always wanted to have a place where the friends come, not a place our kids wanted to stay away from.”
Their children remember growing up around young Marines from their father’s work who would join the family for holiday parties and other gatherings.
“On Christmas, these corporals and lance corporals would be watching movies in the living room,” Jordan Gilbert said. “Even when dad was deployed, my mom would always have his Marines over.”
That bond carries over even though the family is now spread all over the world.
“We grew up together,” Rhodes said. “And we go through it in the Marine Corps together as well. We have an extra bond that not everyone has.”
Tradition of service
Lyle said he understands that most of his children will likely be deployed – potentially to combat zones.
“The only thing needed for evil to prevail is for good and capable men and women to stand idly by and do nothing. And I tell [my children] that,” he said. “If not you, then who? Serving your country, protecting your fellow man and your family, putting it all on the line for that, it’s why we are all here.”
Black History Month
Black History Month celebrates the achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their immeasurable impact on the history of the United States. This year's theme is Black Migrations.
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DoDEA celebrates CTE Month every February as a reminder to students that Career and Technical Education programs are available to all those who want to pursue a college education; enlist in the military; or enter directly into the workforce.
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