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HomeNewsA Soldier’s journey to lead

A Soldier’s journey to lead

Written by Spc. Richard Daniels Jr.
1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs

BastogneFort Campbell KY, 101st Airborne Division

Fort Campbell, KY – The Army has many aspiring leaders within its ranks; however each soldier, like 26-year-old Staff Sgt. Scott D. Mark, a native of Orlando, FL, and a platoon sergeant with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, has their own story on how they got there.

“I joined the military on September 2003, two years after September 11th because I was still in high school, so I wasn’t allowed to join right after 9/11,” he said. “The other half of it is, I just needed a break from school, and I saw the military as an opportunity to get my feet wet in the real world. That’s pretty much why I joined.”

The military was not always easy for the fresh high school graduate, but as time changed, so did he.

Staff Sgt. Scott D. Mark, a platoon sergeant with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, leads his section and teaches them the skills instilled into him by two influential leaders. Today he trains for his upcoming deployment and his next “rendezvous with destiny.” (Photo by Spc. Richard Daniels Jr.)
Staff Sgt. Scott D. Mark, a platoon sergeant with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, leads his section and teaches them the skills instilled into him by two influential leaders. Today he trains for his upcoming deployment and his next “rendezvous with destiny.” (Photo by Spc. Richard Daniels Jr.)

“Like any soldier would tell you, your first few years in the Army, or any career branch that you do in the military, they are not the best years. It’s hard growing up in the military trying to survive,” said Mark.

“But if you stick it out, it’s got a lot of great rewards. For me, [it was] meeting a lot of people, traveling all around the world multiple times and just the experience of a life time, at least it’s been for me. And I would never change anything in the past that’s happened now, now that I have experienced all of this.”

Mark remembers before becoming a leader, he first had to learn to be a soldier. While submersing himself in the real world, military life and being on his own, the military sent him off to his first institutions that would begin his development into what he is today.

“Of course everyone starts out at basic training,” he said. “I went to basic down at Fort Benning in 2003. My first duty assignment right after [One Station Unit Training] was actually airborne school. You know, I went through there and was assigned to the 1st Bn., 506th Inf. Regt., out of Korea before they came to Fort Campbell. When I was in Company A, I spent seven months in Korea. Then we came down on orders to come from Korea to Iraq.

“So I went from Korea to Iraq, I was away from home for 19 months, away from my family,” he said. “Over there is where I gained my first responsibility as a team leader as an E-4. I started doing team leader time at the end of tour, and then from Iraq 2005, we redeployed to Fort Carson, CO. I re-flagged to 1st Bn, 22nd Inf. Regt. [2nd BCT, 4th Inf. Div., where I began to mature more as a team leader doing everyday garrison stuff that a team leaders are responsible for.”

Staff Sgt. Scott D. Mark, a platoon sergeant with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, leads his section and teaches them the skills instilled into him by two influential leaders. (Photo by Spc. Richard Daniels Jr.)
Staff Sgt. Scott D. Mark, a platoon sergeant with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, leads his section and teaches them the skills instilled into him by two influential leaders. (Photo by Spc. Richard Daniels Jr.)

A unique opportunity soon presented itself to Mark. He received orders to participate in a program, one that required him to influence people to join something bigger than themselves.

“About six or seven months later I got picked up for, at the time it was called the Corporal Recruiting Program,” said Mark. “Where soldiers get selected as E-4s to go out and do recruiting. Went out there as an E-4 and that’s where I really started to mature and learn the back doors of the Army as far as paperwork and how everything runs and how everything processes. I guess where I started building my foundation as an NCO. I got promoted out there as an E-5.”

Later in his career, Mark received a chance to teach and pass his infantry knowledge to soldiers at another institution.

“I only did a year and a half as a recruiter before I was pulled back to go down to another [Training and Doctrine Command] assignment for a year, which was an instructor down at Fort Benning, GA, to teach crew serve weapons, help out with the machine guns down there in 2nd battalion, 29th,” he said. “I spent another year down there. Got promoted and went off and volunteered to come to Fort Campbell. So this is over a seven year, six year span.”

He came to Fort Campbell and was assigned as section leader of Company D, then he deployed with them to the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, LA before they departed to Afghanistan. Mark deployed early. He explained that Iraq and Afghanistan were two different fights and his experiences there from combat to losing soldiers have impacted him.

“Definitely matured me a lot,” he said.

Throughout his career, Mark still looks back on the lessons instilled into him by soldier who once led him.

“I had two guys, my squad leader and my team leader. Back then, you know the Army’s changed, but back then, early 2000s, late 2000s, the Army was transitioning. I had a team leader, who is now at Fort Riley that would make his point to make sure I understood everything I needed to know at my job at that time. My squad leader, [now out the Army going to college], was the same, always pounding information into me, always making sure that I was dressed right when we had the Battle Dressed Uniforms. Those two, when I look back, every time when I’m training my soldiers I rely on what they had taught me and how what works and what doesn’t. And I’m still in contact with them. So those are my two most impacted people in my life.”

During his deployment to Iraq, after suffering from the culture shock, Mark made a decision that changed his career.

“My first years and anybody’s first years, you’d never guess to re-enlist,” he said. “You want to get out as quick as possible. Once I started realizing there was a lot of potential to grow and do things other than what I was currently experiencing. I began to enjoy what I was doing.

“Iraq I learned, you know, it’s not about myself, it’s about a team play. Not worrying about what other people think of you. You know, do your job. And the second deployment, Afghanistan, I think I was more prepared. I think as I matured with age being in the Army, I knew what to expect on this deployment.”

With lessons learned from both deployments, today Mark leads and trains his section for the upcoming deployment.

“Any right person who does four years or even three years in the military is going to come out as a different person,” he said. “Your responsibility, your look on life is going to be totally different because you are held to a higher accountability. We don’t get the obligation to call in sick; we don’t get the obligation to not show up when we don’t want to. We have a responsibility and a duty to be where we need to [be], and do what we need to accomplish. So yeah, it’s definitely changed me, drastically.”

After all was said and done, Mark had this to say to any soldier and those aspiring to be one.

“Just stick with it, if somebody else is reading this or listening to this and just coming in trying to learn from my experience. Just stick with whatever you are trying to achieve. It wasn’t easy, you know, it’s been a long road for me. I had a lot of friends that have been killed. But you know what, at the end I think that they would want me to stick with it and do whatever makes me happy. And if the military makes me happy I am going to stick with it. And if one day I’m not happy, it’s time to go do something else that makes me happy. But my life lesson for me is that I’m going to train as many soldiers that I possibly can as they come through and leave. And continue to do this until they tell me that I have to get out.”

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