Welgraven Did Two Tours As A Marine
Pictured: Marine Sergeant Kory Welgraven in Africa.
By Jill Fennema –
This past summer we featured Kaylib Welgraven, who grew up in Chandler. Kaylib’s brother Kory, was also a marine. Their parents are Dennis and Roberta Welgraven of Chandler, and Mari (Alons) Damhof, formerly of Edgerton, now of Blaine.
Kory graduated from high school in 2014. He started working on wind turbines in southwest Minnesota and then later worked at the Mayo Clinic as a Certified Nursing Assistant. He knew he wanted to join the military, but was not sure until he got out in the work force.
“My whole life I wanted to join the military, I just didn’t know what branch,” Kory said. “When Kaylib graduated, it sparked an interest. I didn’t really want to go to college, so I joined the Marine Corps.”
Kory joined the United States Marine Corps in 2016. His boot camp training took place at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, Calif.
“Failing was inevitable,” Kory said. It didn’t matter how much of a PT-stud you were, you were going to fail. They took everyone and put them on the same page.”
The basics of basic training were hygiene, drilling in unison, discipline, and getting really comfortable with your weapon.
“I knew what I was getting into because of Kaylib,” Kory recalls. “I just kept thinking, I can’t quit. What would my family think of me if I quit? If I quit now, I’ll always quit.”
All new Marine recruits are only allowed to make one phone call. The sole purpose of this first call is to notify their family that they have arrived safely. There is a script that they are required to read. Kory called his dad and let him know he was okay and that he would send a postcard with his mailing address in a few days. Some of the other recruits did not reach their loved ones and simply had to leave a voice message.
After basic training, Kory went to Camp Pendleton, Calif., for Marine Corp Combat Training. This is where he was trained on different weapon systems, how to dig fox holes, and how to do “buddy rushing.” Kory explained that “buddy rushing” is when two guys from a group of four will run ahead while the other two provide cover with their guns. Then when those two are in a safe place, the other two provide cover while the first two run to them.
When Kory graduated from combat training he had advanced to the level of platoon leader. He was accountable for 15 marines. After this he spent 15 days in “supply” training. He did very well in this training and was given the “motivation award” and received a “challenge coin” from his commanding officer. He was assigned to the “First Supply Battalion” at Camp Pendleton, where he would serve for about one year.
At this point in his career, Kory was looking for a deployment. When the Marines asked for volunteers, he raised his hand. He was ordered into a new unit, the 3rd Battalion First Marines “Balls of the Corps” infantry division. A month later he was on his first deployment with the 13th Marine Expedition Air Unit, stationed on the USS Essex. He would spend 8 months on this ship, traveling to seven different countries, from July 2018 to March 2019.
This deployment included stops in Malaysia, Bahrain, DuBai, Qatar, Djibouti (Africa), Thailand, and Guam. Each time they were in port, he was able to get liberty to spend a few days on land seeing the sites and experiencing the local culture. The longest stay was in Djibouti, where they participated in a 14 day training event in the heat. The training was supposed to simulate a mobile command post.
Kory enjoyed Guam the most. “The water was so blue and it was such a small island,” he said. He was able to see much of the island in the few days he was there.
As a Marine working in supply, his day-to-day work included receiving the gear that had been ordered and distributing it out to all the areas that needed them – from flack jackets to tires. “We were the Amazon of the marine corps,” Kory said.
Sometimes marines would go missing – whether they were killed or if they were absent without leave. In those situation the people in supply had to inventory their belongings and make sure the military received what belonged to them and all the person’s personal effects were sent to their family.
“It seemed like every month someone would disappear or get arrested and we would have to take care of those things,” he said.
Keeping in touch with family from the ship usually meant waiting until after 4 p.m. when they would have access to Facebook. They could also make phone calls when they were on liberty, which was only about once per month. Sometimes if work was busy it would be weeks before he could talk to family back home, but sometimes it would be a couple days in a row.
After his deployment, Kory returned to California for about six months. He took a machine gunners course, a tactical small unit leadership course, and received his tactical combat casualty care certification.
Pictured above: Kory Welgraven receives his Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal
