The fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, marked a day that affected many. For Jared Barela, then a young boy, the footage of Marines evacuating people out of Saigon marked the moment he wanted to become a Marine.
“I enlisted at 19, but I knew I wanted to be a Marine way back when,” said Barela. He specifically recalls seeing ‘Marines’ on the tail of the helicopter.
At the beginning of the 1960s the Marines numbered 175,571. The population of active duty Marines ballooned to 309,771 at the end of the decade and the early 1970s, tapering back down to 185,250 at the end of the 1970’s.
Barela enlisted with the Marines in Houston in 1987 as a rifleman.
“I had three choices,” Barela said. “I could work in artillery, amphibious tractors and tanks or infantry. I chose infantry, started as a rifleman and ended up as a small unit leader of 03-69.”
Barela has served at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina; Parris Island, South Carolina; Quantico, Virginia and locally at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. He’s had numerous deployments, too. Barela has traveled to ports in the Mediterranean Sea; Okinawa, Japan; Korea; Panama; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Iraq; Kuwait and the United Kingdom.
His first deployment was to Okinawa, Japan.
“I can honestly say that I have never had a bad duty station. Each one of them brought their hardships and challenges but at the end of the day you are still happy to be working with the Marines, American and NATO forces,” Barela said. “My favorite duty station would have to be when I was assigned as a drill instructor both at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island and Officer Candidates School at Quantico.”
At Parris Island, Barela was put through the rigors of transforming and instructing other Marines. Drill Instructor School was formally established in October 1952. The course lasted an initial four weeks but now has grown to encompass an 11-week span.
“It is so rewarding,” Barela said. “When the commandant puts you in charge of making future Marines there is no greater honor. It gives you such a sense of accomplishment when you take the young men and women and put them through a test like no other. When you see them don the Eagle Globe and Anchor and walk across the parade deck, they are taking a part of you with them,” Barela said.
Barela still holds his own drill instructors in high esteem from his early days as a Marine.
“They (Staff Sergeants Trevino, Fisher, Ferdin and Gonzalez) were just super guys. I thought just being a Marine was cool but these guys were way cooler,” Barela said with a laugh.
He held the staff sergeants in the highest regard. “It was just ‘yes sir,’ ‘no sir’. I did what they told me to do and that’s that.”
Barela retired as a Master Sergeant in 2010. His last duty station was at Naval Base Kitasp-Bangor.
Barela works part-time for Kitsap Repair Service and makes the most of his leisure time, spending it with his family and friends. He’s a drummer for the local band SpunkMonkey, who played at Whaling Days in Silverdale in July. He has been married to Teresa Jean Myers for 22 years and they have two children, Jesse Barela, who lives and works in Houston and Ariana Barela, who is majoring in music performance at Washington State University.
Despite the fact that he’s a retired Marine, he still incorporates military order and discipline into his daily life.
“You could probably ask any veteran, no matter if they were in for two years to 30, and they will tell you that each of us has military discipline for the rest of our lives,” he said. “I like to ensure I’m always 15 minutes early for work. That is what time (while in the Marines) you should be in formation ready to go. Also, I love checklists; it makes for an orderly day and a sense of accomplishment.”