United States Marine Corps

Major Tim Berger (SJS ’04) has been an officer in the United States Marine Corps for 12 years, having graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2008. His decision to attend the Naval Academy was influenced by the late Admiral James L. Holloway, III (SJS ’39).  Tim was part of the wrestling team at Saint James and recalls speaking to Admiral Holloway after the Holloway Wrestling Tournament. 

“Admiral Holloway knew I was interested in some type of military service. I can’t tell you where that inspiration initially came from, but I was very interested in flying and being a pilot,” Tim said. “He told me the best pilots go to the Naval Academy, so I said ‘Alright, that seems like the place for me.’ And that’s really what set me in that direction.”

In the fall of his senior year at the Academy when it was time for him to decide his service selection, he thought the Marine Corps was the best fit. Around the time he was graduating was the surge in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he decided he didn’t want to do the additional schooling necessary to become a pilot because he was ready to get into action. 

“I worked with some of the Marine officers at the Academy, and the impression I got from the Marines was that they were motivated and excited about their jobs and it seemed like a better fit,” he said.

After graduating from the Naval Academy with a B.S. in ocean engineering, he went to Marine Corps basic school, a six-month training program for all Marine officers. From there, Tim received his Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), and he became a Logistics Officer. He did his first deployment to Afghanistan as a Motor Transport Officer. He was part of a team that ran convoys all over southern Afghanistan for seven months, from May-November 2011.

“That was a great experience for me," Tim said. "The whole pre-deployment process of working with my senior enlisted Marine, developing training plans, developing procedures for how we were going to run convoys, all of the tactics, techniques, and procedures we would follow, was a deliberate process, and was very involved and detailed. And then going to Afghanistan and executing all of what we were trained to do was great. The best part was bringing everybody home at the end of seven months."

Following that deployment, he spent a year as Base Logistics Officer at Camp Mujuk in South Korea and then in 2013 went to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) in San Diego, where he served for three years. It was there that he learned the importance of peer leadership. 

“As captains, it was our job to make sure our peers are doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” Tim said. “It’s absolutely true that the drill instructors are the best of the best in the Marine Corps and they’re chosen to do that job for a reason. So it’s very easy as an officer to say, ‘They’ve got it, they’ll be fine, they’re great Marines.’ But realistically the stresses of that job are enormous and they can get carried away with what they’re doing, so our jobs are vitally important there as well.”

After a promotion to Major, he became a Future Operations Officer with the 1st Marine Logistics Group in Camp Pendleton, CA.  Tim recently returned from a deployment to Kuwait, arriving stateside at the end of May, five weeks after originally scheduled because of COVID-19.

As the detachment commander for 156 marines and sailors, this deployment covered the whole spectrum of logistics—including supply, mechanics, engineers, transportation, and more.

“Getting to see the whole realm of logistics that we can do in the Marine Corps and getting to interact with all those different kinds of marines and sailors and all of the different things that they do, and to see them trained over the course of last summer and then put it into action was a great experience,” Tim said.

He also noted they were in Kuwait with an infantry battalion and a couple different aviation squadrons, and found the experience of learning how they do their jobs and training with them very rewarding. 

"In Kuwait, we had to go all over the Middle East to do what we needed to do,” Tim said. “During our training with them we had to figure out how much space we had on an aircraft and what stuff we needed to take for whatever the mission was and figure out how to make it fit.”

Over his 12-year career as an officer in the Marines, Tim has learned many important lessons, two of which go back to his days at Saint James—communication and leadership. 

“As an officer, leadership is about communicating your thoughts, desires, and intent to the people who execute it. The better you can do that and convey it and capture it in writing or speaking, the more effective you will be,” Tim said. “That’s the one thing I didn’t really appreciate coming out of Saint James, but having been in the Marines now for 12 years, reading, writing and listening, that communication side of it is huge. So absolutely having Mr. Collin and Ms. Pollock putting me on that path was hugely beneficial.”

At Saint James, Tim was captain of the football and wrestling teams, Senior Marshal, and Senior Prefect, and he believes those leadership opportunities and the chance to learn about various leadership styles was very beneficial. 

“It set a foundation for me to get that experience and knowledge, leading peers and subordinates, and not just leading but looking out for them,” he said.

Having recently completed his deployment to Kuwait, Tim is stationed back at Camp Pendleton.