Ohio Marine returns to Afghanistan with new mission by Cpl. Marco Mancha RC-SW
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Helmand province, Afghanistan -- He comes from a small town in the Buckeye State. He had no real direction growing up and spent most of his days drawing and playing his six-string guitar, until a simple decision to take a trip to a recruiter’s office changed his life forever.
Sgt. Tony L. Jago of Rushsylvania, Ohio, now finds himself thousands of miles away from home serving as the assistant operations chief for the Operations Section of 2nd Marine Division (Forward).
Jago said he remembers just wanting a change of pace and some structure in his life and joined the Marine Corps.
“Do I feel like I made the right choice? Of course, I mean why else would I still be here 10 years later,” said Jago with a smile. “I like the different people you meet and the different people you get to mentor, like young Marines.”
The 29-year-old spent his first four years as an infantryman serving with 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He said he learned many of his leadership skills through three deployments with the unit.
His experience as a Betio Bastard, the unit’s nickname, took him from storming the beaches of Okinawa, Japan, in training exercises to aiding in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2004. Jago said he thought four years of hard work and complete dedication to his fellow Marines was enough and wanted to try something different.
He departed from the Marine Corps and took a full-time job as an injection molder, feeding plastic from a hopper into a heated barrel to mold it into a solid product, like keyboards for computers, football helmets, and other products. It took him two years to realize how much he really missed being an active duty Marine.
“I just missed being around Marines,” explained Jago. “I missed being that small unit leader and really getting to know the Marines around me on a personal level, and just being a part of the Marine Corps atmosphere again.”
Shortly after rejoining the Corps in 2007, he attended the Infantry Squad Leader Course, where he learned to apply his leadership to a squad — a team of 12 Marines directed by the squad leader. Jago said it was his refresher course before deploying for a second tour to Iraq in 2008.
“Being an infantry guy, you don’t forget anything,” said Jago. “Going to ISLC was definitely the hardest course I’ve been through though, but it helped me improve on a lot of what I already knew.”
The dirty-blonde-haired, blue-eyed sergeant said he wasn’t ready to take off the digital uniform after serving four more years and ended up re-enlisting to become a Marine security guard. His plans were cut short after graduating from the Marine Security Guard School in Quantico, Va., when he underwent knee surgery.
The Corps returned Jago to the infantry after the surgery because of the requirements needed to serve as a security guard. When 2nd Marine Division (Forward) was preparing for its current deployment, Jago was selected for his billet in the Operations Section.
Jago said making the transition from serving in an infantry company for eight years to joining a supporting headquarters in which a majority of the Marines were not infantrymen was a challenge for him initially. However, Buffalo, N.Y., native Master Sgt. Chad McKee said he disagrees and believes Jago has done nothing but good things for the division.
“He was brought up (in the Corps) with a certain leadership style and certain philosophy, and it’s 100 percent all the time until the job gets done,” said McKee, the operations chief for the Operations Section, 2nd MarDiv (Fwd).
McKee also said it was Jago’s enthusiasm and dependability as a hard-charging sergeant that placed him above the rest of his peers.
“I know that if I need something done and I tell him to do it, it gets done,” added McKee. “He’s by far easily ready for the next rank of staff sergeant.”
Jago is McKee’s right-hand man and is entrusted to keep track of millions of dollars worth of gear and equipment used on a daily basis in the division’s Combat Operations Center, the command and control center that coordinates and supports division units throughout the battle space. The Ohio State Buckeyes fan must inventory every single piece of gear he is in charge of, often taking several days to go through the hundreds of pieces of equipment, and assists McKee with daily tasks to keep the Operations Section running smoothly.
In addition, he still draws on his expertise as an infantryman from time to time when he assists Headquarters Battalion, 2nd MarDiv (Fwd), as a shooting coach for Marines on the rifle range or by setting up the range. Jago said he knows he is out of his comfort zone in the supporting division headquarters, but hopes to one-day return to the life of an infantry Marine in a company. Until then, he said he does his best everyday until the job is done.
“I pride myself on producing (results), and if I’m given a task, I get it done,” said Jago. “Until my job here is done, I’m going to do my best.”
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