Castles are a Marine family
Second Lieutenant Kevin Castle (left) and Sergeant Keith Castle (right) pose with their grandparents, Elizabeth and Edward Drzewiecki (himself a Korean War veteran).
Sun contributor
Anyone who has served in the military knows the meaning of brotherhood. For Kevin, Keith and Kyle Castle, that concept takes on additional significance.
The three brothers, who grew up near Maple City and graduated from Glen Lake High School, all chose to serve in the United States Marine Corps—a decision they each made independently, but which ultimately brought them closer together through shared experiences.
Kevin, the oldest of the brothers, enlisted in the Marines in August 2003, the summer after he graduated.
“I joined the Marine Corps out of a sense of duty and was seeking to challenge myself while pursuing adventure and education,” he wrote earlier this summer in an email.
After 13 weeks of boot camp at Camp Pendleton, Calif. and months of further training in Florida, Kevin decided to attend the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
He enrolled in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, which allowed him to earn a Bachelor’s degree and become an officer in the Marine Corps.
He majored first in engineering, then changed directions to pursue his interest in psychology and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in May 2008.
“I am currently a communications officer with 2nd MAR DIV, Camp LeJeune, N.C.,” Kevin wrote.
He maintained that the best part about serving in the Marines was being “afforded the opportunity to work with some of the finest young men and women in the country.”
Two of those fine young men happen to be his brothers.
Keith, the second oldest, remembers the exact day that he joined the military.
“I enlisted in the Marine Corps on June 8, 2005, just days after receiving my high school diploma,” he wrote, also in an email earlier this summer.
Now a Sergeant, Keith is currently stationed at Quantico, Va., though during his time with the Marines he has been all over the world.
Like Kevin, his first stop was Camp Pendleton.
After boot camp, Keith went on to further training in the computer data field in Twenty Nine Palms, Calif. From there, he was sent to Camp LeJeune, N.C., where he rotated between seven months of deployment and seven months at his home base.
His first deployment was on board an aircraft carrier involved with evacuating American citizens from Lebanon during the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. His second deployment took him to Iraq.
Keith doesn’t mind moving around. In fact, seeing the world was part of the reason that he joined the military in the first place.
“The best part of serving in the military has to be seeing over 13 different countries in under four years,” he wrote. “I joined the Marine Corps to travel and get a first-hand experience with world affairs.”
With all of that travel comes lots of training as well.
“Training is always continuous,” he wrote. “We are constantly striving to be the best at all that we do. That is why we are Marines.”
For his own training, Kyle was the third Castle to go through boot camp at Camp Pendleton.
He enlisted in the Marines on September 4, 2007, he wrote in an email earlier this summer. His brothers’ decisions to join, he continued, did influence his own.
“I saw how well it worked out for them and wanted to experience it myself.”
After boot camp, he had experiences similar to Keith when he completed computer data training at Twenty Nine Palms.
“Three months of boot camp and one month of Marine Combat Training are both things I would not want to do again now that I’m done with them,” Kyle wrote.
Although those parts of his training were necessary to get him where he is now, he enjoyed his computer training more.
“I placed top of my class in the 10-month long tech controller course,” he wrote.
His training completed, Kyle’s path deviated from those of his brothers when he was sent directly from California to Al Asad, Iraq, where he is currently serving a 14-month deployment as a Corporal.
All of the brothers agree that being away from home for long periods of time is the hardest part of serving in the military.
That’s why their mother, Cindy Castle, who works in Empire, does her best to make them feel at home, even when they are not.
“It is difficult when they are not home for holidays and special events, but I am able to stay in touch with them through the Internet and U.S. mail,” she said. “I try to send care packages as often as I can.”
She explained that she tries to send things that her sons can’t get on base — especially when they are deployed. Items such as beef jerky and copies of the Glen Arbor Sun and Leelanau Enterprise — so they can keep up on local people and events — often make it into the packages.
Cindy added that, like any parent, she worries about her sons’ safety, but she is extremely proud of what they are doing.
“I believe that they have been very well trained,” she said. “All three of my sons are very strong, both mentally and physically. I admire their courage and how they always strive to do their very best.”
As a token of her love and respect for her sons, Cindy placed three flag poles, each flying a brilliant red Marine flag, in front of the Castle home after Memorial Day this year.
The display has received quite a bit of attention, she said.
Recently, one downstate woman left a note on her front door thanking Cindy for her sons’ service. The note added that the woman had just dropped her own son off at the airport to go to boot camp and wondered how Cindy dealt with having three of her sons in the Marines.
Later that day, the woman returned and the two talked.
I’m not sure what exactly they said to each other, but in our own conversation, Cindy left me with these words:
“When you witness the Marine Corps graduation ceremony after boot camp, or have your Marine in his dress blues next to you in church, or witness one son giving his big brother his first salute as an officer, you will know what being a proud Marine Mom is.”