There’s a bit of pain and heartache in being a “Semper Fi” family.
But with three generations of the McLean family now “always faithful” veterans of the Marine Corps, the McLeans have also found there’s a lot of pride and perseverance.
Michael V. Martina / The Herald
The family’s newest Marine, Cpl. William McLean III, recently came home to the Tulalip Reservation after wrapping up a yearlong deployment in Iraq. His father, William McLean Jr., served with the Marines’ 7th Engineer Battalion in the 1980s. And his grandfather, the late William McLean Sr., was one of the 80 or so Tulalips who served during the Vietnam War.
McLean III, a lean and lanky 20-year-old, isn’t a spotlight seeker. His few words are chosen carefully, spoken softly in a just-above-a-whisper voice.
His father, 39, is a stark contrast: a beefy man who can easily fill a doorway, talkative but well-spoken.
His son’s gentle manner had some wondering whether the family’s third Marine had the mental and physical toughness to make it through boot camp.
“We didn’t think he was going to make it,” said William McLean Jr. “He was real passive. You could yell at him, he’d walk the other way.”
McLean Jr. said he’d heard the same doubts from his father when he joined the Marines. And that often involved his dad pointing to his Marine-emblem tattoo.
“He had that eagle, globe and anchor on his arm, and he told me I would never be man enough to earn it,” McLean Jr. said.
Some doubts about the youngest McLean becoming a Marine revolved around the rough-and-tumble childhoods his father and grandfather had experienced.
“We did a lot of fighting growing up. We were pretty rough. And we could handle ourselves,” McLean Jr. said.
Like his father before him, though, the young Marine proved his grandfather and any other doubters wrong. And since graduating from boot camp, McLean has deployed to the Middle East twice.
The first time, he was part of a security force on a civilian cargo ship that was sent from Guam to Kuwait. McLean came home in March from his combat tour in Iraq.
His father recalled the worry and restlessness brought on by his son’s deployment to the war. The death toll of soldiers killed in action hit 1,500 while his son was in Iraq, and McLean Jr. said he lived with the constant fear of a government car pulling up in front of his home.
“I know there’s a lot of people that didn’t get home,” he said. “And I feel sorry for them, because I dreaded that the whole time he was over there, that knock on the door.”
Father and son didn’t write each other during the deployment – a bit of shared stubbornness as each waited for the other to write first. The Marine’s father said waiting for word that his son was OK was irritating.
“I didn’t watch the news,” he said. “I couldn’t, you know, because I would cry, or I’d be up all night. The wondering, or the worrying, it was a whole lot of sleepless nights. I wouldn’t wish that on nobody, you know.”
There was relief when his son finally did come home, as well as other unexpected emotions.
McLean Jr. said he was sad, glad, mad.
“Jealous, mostly,” he said, recalling how he had served during a time of peace and was never tested in combat.
“I trained to do that, and I didn’t get to go,” he said.
“But there’s some goods to it and some bads to it,” McLean Jr. added. “You get to wear that combat ribbon, but then it comes with a price. You’ve got to pay for it with the rest of your life.
“That stuff that happened to you or you had to do over there, that you can’t talk about. And you’re stuck with it,” he said.
The young Marine said he was happy to wrap up his tour in Iraq and the dull days that had an odd routine to them, like the nightly mortar attacks that always happened just as the chow tent opened for the evening meal.
He said he never thought about getting hurt or dying.
“If it happened, it happened. Accept your fate,” he said.
His family welcomed him back from the war in a big way. More than 20 family members gathered at the baggage claim section of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport when he came home on leave a few weeks ago. A crowd of strangers gathered and applauded the Marine when his family gathered around him for a photo.
McLean III, however, was anxious to get out on the highway, and was most looking forward to going nowhere fast.
“It was something I wanted to do, sit in traffic,” he said.
“Over there, you see the same people day after day after day or you see the Iraqis,” McLean III said. “To finally come home and see where I grew up, the people … the mountains and hills. Things I took for granted.”
The oldest of 11 children, McLean III knows he’s a role model for others in his family and tribe. When he was home on leave, he helped his wife, Tisha, pack up for the move to Camp Pendleton. McLean III also took time to be a guest speaker in his siblings’ classrooms here.
He said he doesn’t expect others to follow in his footsteps and enlist.
Instead, his charge is simple but strong: “To do the best at your own thing.”
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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