Ali Abdul-Rahman, Michael Ziegler

Ali Abdul-Rahman, Michael Ziegler

Corona

US History; 04

5/27/15

The Few, The Proud, The Marine

Sergeant Major Michael Zacker has given his life to his self-proclaimed first love : “The Marines.” His active duty ended when he reached the the thirty year service limit. However he maintains that “My service will never end.” Besides the Marines, Sergeant Major Zacker has led a rich, balanced and fulfilled life.

In the spring of 1946, Michael was born as the first child into a family of seven children. He spent his earliest years in Los Angeles until his family moved to San Diego in 1955. Zacker grew up on the beach in Point Loma. Outside of school and his two daily paper routes, Michael was nearly always in the ocean. He could generally be caught swimming, surfing, or scuba diving. From a young age, he was very athletic. Throughout grade school, he was involved in various sports, always aiming to exceed expectations. He was a competitive athlete, competing in football, swimming, and wrestling. However, the pressures from his early weigh heavily on him causing him to struggle with his grades throughout high school.

Michael always knew he was destined for the service. He left high school midway through junior year to enlist earlier. Zacker eventually earned his GED before his senior year with a sense of accomplishment in the academic field of studies. He joined and went to the Marine Corps Boot Camp a mere four days after he turned seventeen years old. He chose the Marine Corps because when it came to physical skill, he was used to being among the very best.

Michael Zacker had a rough home life. Being the eldest of seven brought many responsibilities, expectations, and challenges that he found tough to handle. As a result, he clashed with his parents and even his siblings often. He reported that he sometimes felt like an outsider in his own family. This feeling and his parents’ constant hints that he was expected to move out by his seventeenth birthday helped prompt his immediate enlistment in the Marines.

Once he was in the Marines, Michael Zacker “felt like I finally had a family that cared for me and wouldn’t let me down… a family that actually wanted me as a member.” This was a feeling hitherto unknown by the young man and it caused him to love his profession and throw himself wholeheartedly into his work.

He graduated from Marine Corps Recruit Training (commonly referred to as ‘boot camp’) and became a private in the Marine Corps when he was just seventeen years old. He began work in El Toro, California, where he worked on and flew propeller transport airplanes from 1964 to 1965. On September 1,1965, Private Zacker arrived in Vietnam for the first of his four tours there. During his tours he was a jack-of-all-trades. He worked as a helicopter machine-gunner, avionics technician, rifle platoon sergeant, flying precision navigation equipment operator, automatic rifleman, helicopter mechanic, helicopter crew chief, downed aircraft recovery team member, and a search and rescue swimmer.

Zacker served as the Sergeant Major of Marine Forces Southwest Asia during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Throughout his service, he had been assigned as a technical trainer for Marine Corps Reserves helicopter technicians, and a swimming and water-survival instructor. Sergeant Major Zacker served thirty years of active duty, the last 11 of which he was the senior enlisted advisor to the Commanding General. Five of the thirty years, he spent in combat in Vietnam, the Middle East, and Central America. Once Sergeant Major Michael Zacker reached his thirty year service limit, he honorably retired from the Marine Corps.

Since he was retired, Zacker chose to further his education. He earned three college degrees including a Master’s Degree In Business Administration. He also earned a California Real Estate License and became a mortgage loan officer; he went on to become the operations manager of a mortgage loan company. He served on the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Museum Historical Society Board of Directors and as the Executive Director for five years. Sergeant Mike Zacker’s achievements not only inspired him to continue taking part in the board of the United States Marine Corp affiliation but is also a docent at the Flying Leathernecks Aviation Museum and is also on the Board of Directors there.

Michael Zacker sustains a well balanced life with many hobbies. He is active and engaged in the community, and constantly participates in volunteer work. He also enjoys inventing he currently holds a patent on a piece of diving equipment he designed and created. Additionally, Zacker loves swimming, cartooning, diving, underwater photography, classical music and donating blood. He is also involved in annual Toys for Tots drives, and is a volunteer with his local Red Cross. Sergeant Zacker’s service was one to be acknowledged and remembered for the rest of his life; like the 300 spartans who defended their country or the Huns who fought for a mystery of terror, what the man that we had a privilege of being seated in front of stored in his eyes was more than just a lifetime’s story, but a legacy of one the strongest men, both mentally and physically, to ever walk and stare the enemy directly into his eyes. Sergeant Mike Zacker wasn’t just a fearless spartan or a dauntless Hun, he was and forever will be a United States Marine.