MCAGCC TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif -- When the staff sergeant speaks, his Marines listen.
This is the way it works in the Marine Corps. When a senior Marine is talking, junior Marines show proper respect and listen. But with the Marines of JUMP Platoon, a security detachment from Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, there's more to it.
As the native of Hemet, Calif. passes word onto his devils at Camp Wilson here, a school circle forms around him. A portable DVD player previously blaring a movie is shut off and put away. A handheld videogame system, which just held one Marine captivated on reaching the next level, shares the fate of the DVD player. Even though the temperature is well below what the Hawaii-based Marines are use to, no one is rubbing their hands together or making any attempts to heat up. They simply stand and listen.
Just an icebox of a hooch with 15 sets of eyes and ears locked on the staff sergeant and his voice. They are really listening to him.
It isn't because he's a big guy, which he is. Weighing in at a muscular 215 pounds and just a few inches short of six feet tall, he's easily the most physically dominant in the platoon.
As a newly pinned staff sergeant he's the highest ranking enlisted member of JUMP by two ranks. Still though, that has little to do with the respect he commands. As he'll tell you himself, "Rank only goes so far."
It's because above all things his Marines respect him as a person, as he does them.
"I was always raised, even before I came into the Marine Corps, that in order to get respect, you have to give respect," said Staff Sgt. Solomon Jennings IV, platoon sergeant, JUMP, H&S Company, 2/3. "I always keep in mind that these guys aren't only Marines, but they're men first. They're young men and if you treat them with respect you're going to get respect back. I treat every one of these guys with respect, just like I want to be treated. It was always my intent as a leader to have them respect me, Solomon Jennings IV first, and this rank is just secondary."
The philosophy of earning respect as opposed to demanding it has worked well for the 26-year-old. His superiors have taken notice, sighting the approach as a bit different, but successful.
"It's a fine example of small unit leadership," said 1st Lt. K.C. Trost, officer-in-charge, JUMP, H&S Company, 2/3. "He's been out of the fleet world for a while and he's developed a unique leadership style for these guys and it works well."
Trost sites the different approach to leadership as a result of Jennings' primary military occupational specialty as a career retention specialist.
"He's got more of a recruiter mentality, trying to keep the Marines in and find the happy balance between what the Marine Corps needs and what the Marines want," said the Downingtown, Penn. native. "Things run efficiently. We have some really young (non-commissioned officers) but they get everything done. They know what needs to get done."
Jennings, along with over half of the Marines in JUMP, is new to the platoon which has only been active for three months. They only come together to work during deployments.
According to Jennings, the idea behind JUMP is to enable 2/3 to have a high-speed force of personnel available as a security detachment, but without taking away too many experienced Marines from the line companies. They "didn't want to take away from the combat power," he said. JUMP is an all volunteer detachment, which Jennings believes helps the platoon.
"No matter what we have to go through together, these guys don't complain because they're the ones that volunteered to be here," said Jennings. "They actually want to be here. They didn't want to be in an office, they actually wanted to be out there leading a patrol, mounted behind a 240 or doing something of that nature feeling like they're contributing something other than their administrative skills to this War On Terror."
Only a handful of the JUMP Marines come from an infantry background, with the rest hailing from administration shops and supply warehouses. When deployments roll around, similar to the way Clark Kent sheds his business suit to fight evil as Superman, the Marines of JUMP come together in the proverbial phone booth of training. The Lava Viper and Mojave Viper exercises serve as their opportunity to get up to speed on combat tactics and perhaps more importantly, build unit cohesion.
According to Cpl. Walter A. Marinero, gunner, JUMP, H&S Company, 2/3, although they don't normally work together, many of the JUMP Marines have been friends for a while and previously knew each other. Only the four privates first class of JUMP are truly new to the platoon and thanks to the time they've had to bond during training they are fitting into the family-like style of JUMP well.
"We're not a full platoon," said the Mesa, Ariz. native. "We're a little more than a squad and it makes it easy for us to get to know each other even better. The new guys are learning it takes friendship, not just friendship but a true bond. They see that we're beyond Marine Corps respect and we'll give them respect and they'll give us the respect back."
It always comes back to respect for the JUMP Marines. The idea of giving respect for more than just rank, but for the person underneath the chevrons has worked well for JUMP and is a driving factor behind the closeness of its teufelhunden. It has allowed Jennings to earn a high level of trust and admiration from his juniors in a short amount of time.
"Staff sergeant is new, but he is one of those staff noncommissioned officers that will get your back no matter what happens," said Marinero. "He's one of the leaders you want to work under."
The admiration goes both ways as Jennings sights the accomplishments of JUMP directly to his Marines.
"There's only one of me," said Jennings. "There's only one platoon sergeant and there's so many more of them. I'm depending more on them than they are on me. So I always keep that in mind. I just treat them with respect the same way I would like to be treated and those guys reciprocate and do the exact same thing for me. They make my job very easy."
JUMP has navigated the two-way street of respect with the precision of a stunt driver and it shows in all they do. Whether it's completing a training evolution here or something as common as passing word, the success of JUMP all boils down to one simple thing ...
When the Marines speak, the staff sergeant listens.