Charlie Company Marines thrive on-base

  • Published
  • By Bill Hancock
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Most folks know the Air Force's sky blue flag waves over Wright-Patt, but, a scarlet flag with the gray and gold emblem of the United States Marines Corps flies at the base as well.

The Military Police C (Charlie) Company, 4th Law Enforcement Battalion, is a reserve Marine contingent stationed in Area A.  While completely independent of Wright-Patterson operations, the company supports local Ohio Valley area reservist Marines. Charlie Company provides Marines trained as Military Policemen in time of war, national emergency or contingency operations.

"We are here to support Marine Forces Reserve as an enabler battalion" stated Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Lazaruis, C Company, 4th Law Enforcement Battalion, Operations Chief, "Military police in the Marine Corps have two missions, one is our law enforcement mission, such as community policing, providing first responders and investigating crimes, while here at home. We also have our deployed mission. While every Marine is a rifleman, we are able to uniquely support the Marine air-ground task force, with everything from rear area security, to creating actionable intelligence through battlefield forensics."

While the Marines spend much of their time training, they also find time for local community relations.  "We support and conduct tours for local high school JROTC units, we provide honor guards for funerals and Marine color guard displays for many different military events throughout the year and support the USMC program "Toys for Tots" annually" said Lazaruis. "We like to keep busy."

The Charlie Company facility at Wright-Patt is equipped with all the accoutrements of a typical Marine battalion. The company has within its walls its own indoor weapons simulator, a gym, a hand-to-hand combat training area to practice their mandatory knowledge and execution of combat martial arts and their own hospital corpsman available to take care of medical needs and assessments. The Company even has its own motor pool.

"Most reserve units are located out-in-town. From a force protection and Military Resource stand point we are lucky to be located on Wright-Patt" states Lazaruis, "And even though we are not operationally a part of the base, we do consider ourselves part of the Wright-Patt team and certainly part of the Miami Valley community."

Charlie Company has been awarded and distinguished during its time on Wright-Patt and takes great pride in the Marines amongst its ranks. Marines such as Sgt. Adam Byler, USO Central & Southern Ohio NCO of the Year for 2016 and GySgt. Joshua Green (Retired) who was awarded a Bronze Star with Valor device, for his actions in Iraq, November 2004 to May 2005.

"Our work ethic ensures Charlie Company Marines are medically ready, physically fit, and trained to meet our standard" said Lazaruis, "As an active duty Marine, I am always amazed by our reservist's enthusiasm and willingness to tackle and complete their tightly compressed schedules of both service directed and military occupational specialty specific training, while maintaining their medical readiness. We take great pride in our ability to be world-wide deployable on a moment's notice."

Through the hard work and discipline of Charlie Company, Semper fidelis is at home on WPAFB.