When George Espinosa was 11, his brother came back to St. Croix, Virgin Islands from the Marine Corps. He was wearing a Marine Corps Service Alpha uniform and that was it. Espinosa remembered that uniform until a year after high school when he joined the Marine Corps and got one of his own.

Now, almost 28 years later, Sgt. Maj. George Espinosa is assigned to Marine Aviation Training Support Group 53 as the senior enlisted “boss” of the Marines working on NAS Whidbey Island.

He’s seen the changes in the Marine Corps that 28 years can bring and he’s excited about them.

“The training we have today is better, the equipment is better and the process to do it is better,” said Espinosa.

As a group sergeant major, Espinosa is an advisor to the Marine Commanding Officer, Col. Timothy B. Cutright, on a variety of issues pertaining to enlisted personnel. His duties include meeting with fellow command master chiefs on the base, supporting community requests for color guard ceremonies and veteran’s funerals, coordinating volunteers for the Toys for Tots drive, local county fairs and the Megan McClung Memorial run.

When Espinosa enlisted, he was on an open contract, meaning he could be sent wherever the Marine Corps needed him, but once he got into basic training he was sent to an administrative course and soon realized how lucky he was.

“It was different,” he said. “Being in admin I could go to any Marine Corps unit and plug into the admin office because every unit has one; that allowed me to be stationed anywhere in the Marine Corps, and travel to more duty stations.”

And he has. He’s been stationed everywhere from South Carolina, Minnesota, California, Washington, D.C., Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, Okinawa, and has traveled to the Philippines, Korea, Okinawa, and to Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan.

Now at Whidbey, Espinosa says the Marine Corps has stayed the same, but also changed.

“Training Marines today requires that all Marines be more technically proficient and as the mission changees, Marine leaders must also change the old mindset,” said Espinosa.

“I’ve seen other services and commands in other countries where they are hesitant to allow junior service members to assume a greater role of responsibility,” said Espinosa. “But the Marine Corps does it because if the platoon sergeant gets hit, the junior lance corporal or corporal has to be able to continue the mission.”

Espinosa is quick to affirm that the Marine Corps is still the point of the spear.

“There’s a lot of mentoring going on nowadays,” Espinosa said. “At the Resident Leadership schools, they’re definitely getting and using the leadership tools they will need to be successful leaders down the road.”