Christine Latuner, 22, was born in Queens, New York where she eventually was recruited from RSS Jamaica. As she neared the end of her high school experience, she found herself looking into pursuing her education further, researching various colleges. Latuner felt that perusing college wasn’t the right choice at the time; she wanted to do something with a little more action. That’s when her father recommended looking into the U.S. Marine Corps.

“Once I looked into it, I completely fell in love with it and I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” she said.

It wasn’t long after her initial period of inspiration that she would take the initiative and enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps as a combat engineer in August, 2018. One of the main draws for Latuner was the travel aspect that joining the Marine Corps would provide, something that she has taken full advantage of within her time in the Corps. Latuner has traveled all over Europe, to Germany, Greece, Sweden, and Finland, after previously never leaving the United States.

“I’d never traveled outside of the United States before the Marine Corps, so it’s been great for not only me, but my family gets to see me travel, which I know they love,” she said.

Latuner, now a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, has served four years, and currently serves as a team leader for the Littoral Engineer Reconnaissance Team (LERT). LERT is a geospatial data collection asset that performs reconnaissance patrols to assess an area of operation for mission potential. As a LERT team leader she has the responsibility to lead her team of five to twelve Marines on a patrol to a designated area of operation, all the while ensuring the required data is being collected and compiled. While LERT is the new main focus for Latuner, it is only a small part of her job as a combat engineer. Combat engineering requires both constructing and demolishing structures on the battlefield, the latter being Latuners favorite.

“My favorite part of my job is demolitions. Who doesn’t want to blow something up?” She said, “It’s pretty cool, setting up the charge and actually placing it; that anticipation for when it blows. I love demolitions, I could do that all day.”