Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort -- Cpl. Samuel Jarrell, a generator mechanic for Marine Wing Support Squadron 273, Engineering Company, received the Utilities Marine of the Year award during a ceremony aboard Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, Nov. 7.
Jarrell, a native of Charleston, W. Va., received the award after more than 200 hours of heavy equipment operation, responding to 60 power generation trouble calls and providing more than 20,000 hours of uninterrupted power generation.
Jarrell has encountered many hardships throughout his time with the Sweathogs, but succeeded in overcoming them.
When deployed with MWSS-273 to Forward Operating Base Edinburgh, Helmand Province, Jarrell and other utilities Marines supported water purification, power generation and air conditioning operations for the base. Jarrell and his Marines supported the base for six and a half months.
During this time Jarrell and his Marines cleared 8 years of trash from around the base populated with 300 people.
Jarrell and his team took an old fuel tanker and fashioned it into an incinerator cradling over a ditch. Due to the way the incinerator was fashioned, Jarrell was able to get rid of an entire day’s worth of trash from 300 people in just 45 minutes.
Jarrell explained that once a portion of the ditch filled with ashes, his team would pile dirt on top of the ash and continue the process until all the garbage was gone.
Since being with the Sweathogs, Jarrell said he has realized what’s important about any job in the Marine Corps.
"It doesn’t matter if you’re shooting for 20 years of service or just doing four and then you get out, what matters is that you take pride in what you do for the Marine Corps," said Jarrell. "If somebody assigns you a project or someone trusts you to take charge of something you should do your best no matter what."
Jarrell has not only exceeded expectations in his military occupational specialty, but due to the fact that he has a knowledge of other utilities, he is beneficial to other utility-related MOS fields as well.
"Even though he is only a corporal he acts like a staff NCO," said Staff Sgt. David Frederick, the maintenance chief for MWSS-273 Engineering Company. "He is not only finding stuff that has been overlooked but he’s also providing solutions to fix the issue. He will never come to me with a problem without already having at least three different solutions for that problem. That’s who he is and that’s who he’s been."
According to Frederick, Jarrell is very well-rounded in all the sections of utilities and performs at a level above his rank.
"He has a specific knowledge of each military occupational specialty that works with water purification, air conditioning and generators," said Frederick. "He learned all that knowledge through experience; he knows things that a corporal in our field shouldn’t know."
Frederick said that due to the kind of Marine that Jarrell is, he would go to war with Jarrell in a heartbeat.
"The reason I feel that way is because due to the type of caliber that he is as a Marine, I can trust him and I don’t have to second guess him when I ask him to get something done," said Frederick. "There may be times when something comes up at the last minute before we head home for the day but due to his outstanding work ethic, he will stay until it’s done.
Jarrell is known for staying late in order to get a task complete. Even though he is given a task that doesn’t need to be complete for four days, he stays until 8 – 10 p.m., doing whatever is necessary to get the job done ahead of schedule.
There have been times where due to Jarrell’s strong sense of initiative, that Frederick had to tell him to slow down.
"Every now and then I have to pull the chain and tell him to cool off and that it can wait," said Frederick. "He absolutely despises having any amount of task carry on to the next day. I am willing to say that I have one of the best, if not the best, generator mechanic in the entire Marine Corps."