Sgt. Maj. Carlos Ruiz confronted his first assembly with a gaggle of reporters this week for the reason that Marine Corps chosen him to be its prime enlisted chief in June.
Reporters peppered Ruiz with questions on his upbringing within the Marine Corps, service member psychological and bodily well being, political subjects, and what younger Marines may count on in America’s new period of battle post-World Conflict on Terror.
“I’m a warehouse clerk,” Ruiz advised reporters Tuesday. “However being a warehouse clerk, that does not imply that I did not consider myself as a Marine first.”
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Many questions had been answered, although not less than one — whether or not he would permit beards within the Corps — was a difficulty to “steer clear of,” not less than for now, he added. It was clear, nonetheless, that Ruiz wished to inform his story and that he believes different Marines ought to do the identical.
“However that additionally means telling when issues went unhealthy,” he mentioned, urging leaders to share their tales and the way they overcame unfavourable experiences.
Ruiz is coming into the job throughout a transition inside the Marine Corps. The service is making the main shift from insurgencies within the Center East to competitors within the Indo-Pacific in opposition to China. Logistics, personnel, expertise and coaching are all on the desk for “experimentation,” in response to service doctrine, although the amphibious nature of the Corps stays at its coronary heart.
“There may be a lot to be accomplished,” the doctrine says.
In the meantime, the Marine Corps is with no congressionally confirmed commandant for the first time in 164 years attributable to a legislative maintain by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who objects to the Pentagon’s coverage permitting go away for abortion providers.
Ruiz takes the mantle of sergeant main of the Marine Corps on Aug. 10, probably with no confirmed officer counterpart.
On this, Ruiz advised reporters, “I’ve a entrance row seat to what’s occurring. And what’s occurring is we proceed to march. We proceed to maneuver ahead.”
He recalled coming to the U.S. from Sonora, Mexico, when he was 11 years outdated and having to catch as much as English-speaking friends who had been already accustomed to American tradition. Earlier than enlisting within the Corps in 1993 as a provide warehouse clerk, Ruiz remembered failing the Armed Providers Vocational Aptitude Battery, a check to find out a potential service member’s navy job, 3 times.
“I feel if I had been to take the ASVAB as we speak, I might in all probability be OK,” he quipped.
That point in his life is one which he invokes when mentoring Marines, he mentioned. He needs to faucet into what it felt like for a Marine to take the Eagle, Globe and Anchor for the primary time. Had been you emotional? Did you cry?
“No, you in all probability shed a tear, proper?” he mentioned. “As a result of it felt like successful. And perhaps some haven’t skilled the sensation of successful or carrying out one thing.”
In celebrating these wins, he mentioned it is very important acknowledge the failures. He recalled a second as corporal when a senior enlisted Marine picked him to name cadence on a run. Ruiz had been chosen because the guidon bearer for his platoon — a place he competed for — however when known as, he knew no cadence. And the platoon fell silent.
“That was an awakening for me to know as a result of you’ve gotten this rank in your collar that places duty on you, you’ve gotten that duty to get higher every single day and do not conceal,” he mentioned.
Earlier than the assaults on New York Metropolis’s World Commerce Middle in 2001, Ruiz frolicked in Japan; Barstow, California; and at a recruiting station in Los Angeles. A month after the Twin Towers fell, Ruiz reported to a provide firm within the 1st Pressure Service Assist Group.
“I used to be a workers sergeant when the towers fell,” he recalled to reporters. Ruiz was fielding a query about what he would inform younger Marines — lots of whom spent their whole lives watching a really kinetic World Conflict on Terror unfold on tv — who’re becoming a member of a navy centered on deterrence within the Pacific.
“So, the day will come — could come,” he mentioned. “There was by no means a time that I keep in mind [saying], ‘Boy, I had an excessive amount of time to arrange.’ That is your prep time. … It could be catastrophe reduction, humanitarian, no matter it’s. They’re gonna get known as someplace.”
The primary time Ruiz was known as to a fight zone was in 2003 when he deployed to Kuwait, from the place he would then enter Iraq on the daybreak of the invasion, in response to his official Marine Corps biography.
The next 12 months, Ruiz donned a marketing campaign cowl as a drill teacher in San Diego. By 2006, he had been a drill grasp, bodily coaching teacher, and the Drill Teacher College’s chief teacher.
“Do not be mad once I maintain you to the usual that you just wished to be part of,” he recalled telling his Marines as a noncommissioned officer.
Throughout the subsequent decade, Ruiz deployed to Afghanistan twice as a primary sergeant. In 2013, he was chosen for sergeant main and held various logistics management roles at that rank.
In 2021, Ruiz served as each the enlisted chief of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve and U.S. Marine Corps Forces, South — his penultimate assignments earlier than the service chosen him as sergeant main of the Marine Corps. He’s the primary sergeant main chosen for the job in additional than a decade who hails from a non-combat navy occupational specialty, or MOS.
There have been various issues Ruiz indicated are on his radar. One is well being — non secular, psychological and bodily. He cited a facility at Twentynine Palms, California, that has gyms, bodily therapists, chaplains and different providers centrally positioned for Marines to entry.
“That is the place we need to put some assets to,” he mentioned, although he acknowledged the problem of replicating that one-stop-shop for the “complete drive.”
He mentioned that it’s good the Marine Corps is how physique composition is measured. He additionally mentioned that “we’re at all times trying on the insurance policies and orders” when requested about modifications to tattoos, bodily coaching and uniforms, however he didn’t specify particulars.
Ruiz mentioned that the reporters weren’t the primary to ask him about what he needs to alter or repair in regards to the Marine Corps. However he does not need to enter the place “with a thought that one thing must be mounted, as a result of we have been doing fairly properly for a very long time.”
He was hesitant to decide to any sweeping modifications. Nonetheless, he mentioned that “the setting is telling us — is compelling us — to maneuver quicker at getting higher assets to households.” He listed barracks, medical care, pay, little one care and housing as basic quality-of-life efforts he hopes to bolster with a purpose to make the all-volunteer drive an setting that Marines need to keep in and potential troops need to be part of.
“I need to hear first to the drive,” he mentioned.
“It isn’t about what I’ll change. It is what’s not going to alter, and that is actually about figuring out your job, respecting the usual, and striving every single day to have a disciplined day,” he mentioned. “To be somewhat higher than you had been yesterday.”
— Drew F. Lawrence will be reached at drew.lawrence@navy.com. Comply with him on Twitter @df_lawrence.
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