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Marine Corps Pvt. Robert M. Honaker, son of Debi B. and Mike Honaker of Oakton, recently completed basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C.
Honaker successfully completed 12 weeks of training designed to challenge new Marine recruits both physically and mentally.
Honaker and fellow recruits began their training at 5 a.m. by running three miles and performing calisthenics. In addition to the physical conditioning program, Honaker spent numerous hours in classroom and field assignments, which included learning first aid, uniform regulations, combat water survival, marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat and assorted weapons training. Recruits performed close order drill and operated as a small infantry unit during field training.
Honaker and other recruits also received instruction on the Marine Corps’ core values - honor, courage, and commitment, and what the words mean in guiding personal and professional conduct.
Honaker and fellow recruits ended the training phase with The Crucible, a 54-hour team-effort, problem-solving evolution, which culminated with a ceremony in which the recruits were presented the Marine Corps emblem and were addressed as “Marines” for the first time since boot camp began.
Honaker is a 2000 graduate of Oakton High School of Vienna and joined the Marine Corps in May 2002.
Retired Rear Adm. Donald J. Guter, JAGC, has been appointed the chief executive officer and executive director of the Navy Marine Coast Guard Residence Foundation by the Vinson Hall Corp. (VHC), which operates a continuing care retirement community in McLean. The Navy Marine Coast Guard Residence Foundation is the parent organization of VHC and the fund-raising component for the community.
Rear Adm. Guter was the judge advocate general (JAG) of the Navy before his recent retirement after 32 years of military service. He began his service as a surface line officer before attending law school and transferring to the JAG Corps. His assignments, particularly in the Office of Legislative Affairs and as the senior military legal advisor to the secretary of the Navy and the chief of Naval Operations will serve him well in his new position.
Second Lt. George M.C. Mardeili of Vienna has been commissioned as an auxiliary officer of athletics at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va.
Melody Y. Godhardt has joined the U.S. Army under the Delayed Entry Program. The program gives young men and women the opportunity to delay entering active duty for up to one year.
The enlistment gives the new soldier the option to learn a new skill, travel and become eligible to receive as much as $50,000 toward a college education. After completion of basic military training, soldiers receive advanced individual training in their career job specialty before being assigned to their first permanent duty station.
Godhardt, a 1996 graduate of Langley High School in McLean, has reported to Fort Jackson, Colombia, S.C., for basic training. She is the daughter of Hyenem and Tom Godhardt of McLean.