Stuart Marine remembers buddies lost, earlier generations on Veterans Day

Billy Olswicki joined the U.S. Marines in 2007, shortly after graduating high school in northern California.

The 34-year-old Stuart resident said his great-grandfather served in World War II, his grandfather in Vietnam and several cousins joined the Marines.

Each time a cousin deployed, the family never knew whether they would return.

“Luckily, we all came back,” he said.

Olswicki is one of nearly 55,500 veterans in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties — and more throughout the state and nation — for whom Veterans Day is intended to honor and recognize. Florida has the third largest population of veterans behind California and Texas, according to the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

“Service to country is very big in our family, and service to community as well,” said Olswicki, now married with four young children.

He remembers Sept. 11, and that a cousin who joined the Marines was deployed afterward.

“Our whole family was kind of on edge, but you realize it has to be done, even at a young age,” Olswicki said. “It's something that our family took very seriously.”

'All we can promise you is pain'

Olswicki was with the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines in a scout sniper platoon.

Deployment to Fallujah in Iraq came in 2008 after training in California.

Part of the training and winnowing down process, he said, was particularly demanding. He was one of three who made the cut out of more than 60. Upon selection, Olswicki learned little respite would follow.

“They pretty much told us ... this has all been easy so far, every day is just going to be harder,” he said. “All we can promise you is pain.”

In Fallujah, situated about 40 miles west of Baghdad in central Iraq, Olswicki said they worked to help set up for elections. He was the pointman for his team, and most of the job involved making observations.

“We're trying to gather as much intel and give it back to our battalion commander so that he can get a good visual of the battlefield, essentially,” Olswicki said. “He can see how the population is integrating with the grunts, normal infantry men, doing their patrols.”

He spent about nine months in Fallujah, and also was involved in training Iraqi soldiers.

During a second deployment in the Pacific, Olswicki said he served in a variety of places, including Guam, Indonesia, Australia, Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia.

That deployment included in 2010 re-taking the Magellan Star, a hijacked ship that had been taken over by Somali pirates, in the Gulf of Aden. It's been described as the first boarding of its type in modern U.S. naval history.

“When we got there, we essentially ... gave them 24 hours to give control of the ship back to the crew, or we're going to board,” Olswicki said. “So we did, we boarded, we took the ship back over. No deaths.”

He joked that he called his wife and told her to look at CNN. They’d been referred to as “U.S. Marine commandos,” he said.

“We're like, 'Hey, I guess we're commandos now, guys,’ because we never call ourselves that,” he said. “We're just Marines.”

He left the service in 2015, and said he’s been involved with private security contracting, commercial diving and work involving explosives for perforation for fracking.

He and his wife wound up in Stuart, where they’ve lived for about two years. His eldest child is 9.

A personal meaning for Veterans Day

Olswicki said Veterans Day, to him, is about remembering buddies he lost and earlier generations.

Sometimes on past Veterans Days, he would go to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Three Marines with whom he served are buried there. Two died in Iraq, and one died in the United States by suicide, he said.

He remembers during his childhood, his family visited traveling memorial walls, placed in parks.

“I think we need more of that because when you look at those walls and those names in stone ... You don't see what was done, but you can see the price that was paid,” he said.

He thinks younger people don’t respect veterans as much as did those from earlier generations.

“I don't really think that they respect the country so much, the love of the country, it's so torn right now,” Olswicki said. “Even just holding an American flag can be political now, which I never thought would be a thing.”

He lamented that people focus on what sets them apart, and "not about what they have in common with each other and why we live in the greatest country in the world."

Olswicki said few services are available for veterans, particularly those in the infantry, after leaving the military.

“You definitely come back as a different person,” he said. “You're taught how to be an efficient killer, but when you come back, and you decide to get out ... there's really zero help for you to be able to transition back into civilian life.”

‘Really set me straight’

Olswicki said his grandmother was his guardian, but she died when he was 14, and he started working as a ranch hand.

The Marine Corps, he said, “really set me straight,” and he had good mentors. It gave him purpose, refining the character that his grandmother instilled in him.

He’s proud of his service, and the ability to connect with other Marines.

“Probably the thing I'm most proud of ... is just simply being a Marine,” Olswicki said. “The mission is everything, ... Just handing out candy to kids or just doing combat deployments, just being a Marine, that's what I'm proud of most.”

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Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida Marine recalls military service before Veterans Day