4 fighter jets zoomed over Parris Island Friday. Meet the Marine they honored
The Army National Guard disqualified William Carter from serving because he was born without a lower pectoral muscle.
“It had no hindrance on my physical abilities,” said Carter, a 49-year-old Versailles, Kentucky, native. “I maxed their physical fitness.”
In 1992, Carter joined the Marines instead.
In a 30-year career, Carter rose through the ranks, and he’ll retire as a sergeant major of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. In that influential position, which Carter began in April 2019, he was the senior enlisted advisor for commanding general Julie Nethercot on the Eastern Recruiting Region, recruit training and maintenance of MCRD Parris Island, the second oldest post in the Marine Corps.
Not bad for a guy the Army National Guard turned down.
“We’re a close-knit family,” Carter said of the Marines. “Even when we have disputes amongst each other, we see fit to make everything mend and just go back to being good brothers and sisters. So I will miss it. Yes.”
On Friday, Carter passed the reins of the revered position to Sgt. Major Edwin Mota in a “Relief and Appointment Ceremony.”
Mota, 46, was born in the Dominican Republic but raised in New York City.
He welcomes the challenge.
“If you want to see a Marine challenged, just throw some things at him and he — or she — will definitely surprise you,” Mota said.
Like Carter, Mota initially had no intention of joining the Marine Corps. But life had other plans, and the decision turned out for the best. To be selected for the sergeant major’s job, he says, is a “tremendous honor.” He’s already thinking about goals he hopes to accomplish.
“I tell you, once I found out I was selected for this job, my head started spinning and turning,” Mota said.
One challenge Mota wants to address is communication. Ensuring that information about changes occurring in the Marine Corps gets passed down to the drill instructors and recruiters who must implement them is critical, he says.
On Friday, four fighter jets from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort blasted across the sky over 400 graduating men and women at Parris Island, prompting “oohs” from some of the estimated 3,500 to 5,000 people who attended..
The flyover, a rare event, was in honor of Carter, who was invited to serve as the pass and review officer, the long-standing military tradition of reviewing the troops, for the graduation. “It was very meaningful,” Carter said.
The sergeant major role is really three jobs in one, Carter says. One is overseeing Marine recruiters east the Mississippi River, from Maine to Puerto Rico. A second is supervising drill instructors and sergeant majors. The third job, he says, is taking care of Parris Island.
Carter, a former drill instructor, has seen many changes in three decades, most of them for the good, he says.
“I don’t feel that the older Marine Corps is better than the newer Marine Corps, to be honest,” Carter said. “I believe these younger Marines these days are way ... smarter than what we were, and I believe it just continues to grow.”
The first-ever gender-integrated company graduated from Parris Island in March 2019.
The 444 Marines who graduated Friday included men from Alpha Co. and women from Oscar Co.
“I think we’re going in a great direction because we’re bringing in integration,” Carter said. “I feel that our female Marines have always stood beside us.”
Will stay in the area
Carter plans to stay in the area. He and his wife are building a house in Bluffton and have a 12-year-old son. Eventually, he plans to look for a job in Bluffton or Beaufort. But he hasn’t taken a full vacation since 2019, so he will take a few months off first to “decompress.”
Frustrated after he was turned down by the Army National Guard, Carter was walking by a Marine Corps recruiting office when a Marine screamed at him to come over and talk to him. Carter listened. Always up for a challenge, he decided to enlist. Not long after, he was in boot camp at MCRD Parris Island, South Carolina.
“It’s been a joy,” Carter said.
