UNDISCLOSED LOCATION -- Day and night, Marines with the Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command are working in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. Each individual has their own tasks within their career field, but the advantage of the MAGTF concept is the unit’s ability to self-support.
Even the strongest of metals break sometimes, and when anyone in the SPMAGTF needs metal repairs or has projects requiring welding, they call Sgt. Arnet Moore, the weld shop supervisor with Combat Logistics Battalion-7, the Logistics Combat Element of the unit.
Moore began his welding career at Valley High School, in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Valley offered an introductory class on metalworking in which Moore fell in love with the trade.
When Moore graduated high school he shipped right off to recruit training, where he would become a Marine and bring his welding experience with him.
"I love challenges. My recruiter SSgt. Hill faced me with a challenge, and I took it,” said Moore. “I wanted to travel the world and I wanted to be different. Everyone I knew talked about joining, but I was the only one who did it.”
Moore’s path was certainly different than that of his friends back home and it lead him to another welding school where he would further expand his skills.
When Moore went through the Marine Corps welding school he learned how to do arc welding, metal inert gas welding and tungsten inert gas welding. He said he plans to keep employing his skills within the Marine Corps, instead of taking his experience elsewhere.
“I’m going to make a career out of it,” Moore said. “I’ve been in for six and a half years, so I’m already a third of the way (to retirement.)”
Moore said his motivation to stay in the Marine Corps mainly comes from the pride that it gave his father when he first enlisted.
“He loved that I joined and that I’m doing something different,” said Moore. “He passed away during my first deployment, and he’s the reason I’m staying in.”
Though the memory of his father is the main reason he chooses to stay, it helps that Moore enjoys what he does in the Marine Corps.
“I love what I do,” said Moore. “People trust me to make what they need without their guidance, because I know my job."
“You have to practice all the different techniques when you’re welding because sometimes you can’t move the materials,” said Moore. “Sometimes you’ll have to crawl under a vehicle and weld overhead and you need to be able to do it.”
Moore explained that his favorite part about welding for the Marine Corps is the variety of different work orders he gets to fulfill.
“My jobs vary; my normal tasks consist of constructing parts, making buildings and even assisting coalition forces,” said Moore. “The other coalition forces out here don’t have a welder, so I’ve gotten to work with them.”
Moore said he’s met a lot of people in his travels with the Marine Corps, and travel is a large part of why he joined in the first place. The Marine Corps has given him exactly what he asked for.
“I’ve done everything the Marine Corps has promised me already,” said Moore. “I was told I’d deploy on a ship; I was told I’d have a combat deployment, and a MAGTF deployment, but I still have more to see. I want to go to the East Coast, Okinawa and Hawaii before my time is done.”
Moore has a long road ahead of him in the Marine Corps and his next step will bring him to recruiting duty. After this deployment, he’ll report to Basic Recruiter School in the spring, and then spend the following three years recruiting young men and women to serve in the Marine Corps.
After his tour on recruiting duty, Moore hopes to continue his career at one of the duty stations at which he hasn’t yet served.