Kathy Stewart, wtop.com
QUANTICO, Va. – After three-decades of service, Col. Daniel J. Choike next month will wrap up his military career as commander of the Quantico Marine Corps. Base.
The colonel, who has commanded Quantico for the last three years, is one proud Marine, a very humble man and a man married to his high school sweetheart.
“Once a Marine, always a Marine” is definitely the case with the colonel.
“For 30 years of living a lifestyle, a privilege of wearing the uniform and being United States Marine, that’s not going to go away when I take the uniform off,” Choike says.
He says he and his wife are not going anywhere.
“We look forward to retirement here. We’re staying in the area. Quantico is our home.”
His goal is to leave the base a better place then when he came aboard.
“We (he and his wife) know to much about the region here in terms of what the needs are. We’re not saying goodbye. I’ll say, ‘I’ll see you in a different capacity,'” Choike says.
As he thinks about retirement, he says he admires young Marines, the 18 year olds. He calls them the real heroes, especially in light of what this country has been though over the last 10 years.
“What I’ve seen in my 30 years is it that we have enough American patriots who are willing to step forward and answer the calling.”
Choike says as long as there are enough young patriots to keep coming forward and serving, he believes the nation is in great hands.
Read Choike’s full biography on the United States Marines’s Quantico page.
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