Multiple Tours… “No one ever said it was easy”

Staff Sergeant [now SFC] MacArthur Ocampo was born in Southern California, but at the age of ten he moved to the Philippines to live with his relatives. Graduating from high school at age fifteen (yes, fifteen), he entered university and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a minor in Computer Science. His goal… go on to law school and become a lawyer practicing in his adopted country of the Philippines.

The following article was written by LTC Jerry Hogan (USA, ret.) and has been re-published with his permission. It is an article from 2009 that discusses the path that lead AskTOP SME, SFC Mackie Ocampo to join the United States Army. The original article can be found on Mr. Hogan’s website, The Military View. The article has been reformatted for AskTOP.

But like many young men and women serving today in our military services, his plans were changed. Coming back to the States in 2002 for a vacation prior to entering law school, he started realizing what was happening with his native country, the USA, and the global war on terror that was spreading throughout the world. As he said, “I dug into the patriotic side of myself and disregarded everything I had planned.”