MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- “If you hesitate, you lose your advantage,” coached Sgt. Jeffery Bowers as he grappled with one of his Marine Corps Martial Arts Program students.
“Good, good,” he said.
“Now what? What did you just learn?,” Bowers asked after he pinned a student to the ground in an effort to get him to use the armbar from the mount technique.
Bowers, Marine Helicopter Squadron One supply accounting division noncommissioned officer in charge, has used his MCMAP skills, and the leadership traits and skills taught in basic training to help propel him through the ranks.
“I can’t wait till he picks up staff sergeant,” said Master Gunnery Sgt. Steven J. Rowe, aviation supply chief, HMX-1. “He’s my go-to sergeant. He mentors and teaches his fellow sergeants and junior Marines. He’s a team player.”
MCMAP is just one way he shows his team-player mentality.
Instead of giving up and saying he couldn’t train Marines in MCMAP because of the frequent trips his job requires, Bowers conducts open mat MCMAP training daily from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the dojo he set up in the HMX-1 supply warehouse.
“Everyone is welcome to come (to the open mat training),” he said. “The way I see it, if you’re not willing to come back to your unit and do what the tab on your belt is intended to do, don’t waste the (Martial Arts Center of Excellence’s) time.”
By using open mat, he gives more Marines the opportunity to come in when they can, log the hours they need and test out when they are ready.
“My goal is that the Marines and sailors complete the course injury free, that they enjoy the course and that they learn something, not just about the course but, about leadership as a whole,” he said.
Bowers has been a NCO, and so a small unit leader, in the Marine Corps for 6.5 years, and a sergeant for five years.
“The Marine Corps is not hard if you stick to the leadership traits and skills you are taught at boot camp,” said Bowers. “I’ve had to work the hardest on decisiveness.
I think a lot of young NCOs are hesitant to make decisions because their afraid they’ll make the wrong one.”
Bowers has excelled in many areas outside of his military occupational specialty.
“He’s a second degree black belt, he runs a first class (physical fitness test and combat fitness test) and he’s an expert with the rifle,” said Rowe, “and on top of all that, during his time at HMX he’s earned his associates degree.”
Bowers was modest about his Marine Corps training accomplishments.
“No one plays the lottery to win half,” Bowers said. “The best you can do, that’s what you should do.”