Sergeant major and son join forces in Afghanistan for second time

Sergeant major and son join forces in Afghanistan for second time

Regimental Combat Team-5, 1st Marine Division Public Affairs
Story by Staff Sgt. Andrew Miller

CAMP DWYER, Helmand province, Afghanistan – Some fathers teach their sons how to throw a ball and others show their sons how to fish. Sgt. Maj. Ernest Hoopii, Regimental Combat Team 5 sergeant major, taught his son how to be a Marine.

Lance Cpl. Sean Hoopii, a fire team leader with 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, is currently serving alongside his father for the second time in southern Helmand province.

“Sean is like my mini-me,” said the elder Hoopii, a native of Maui, Hawaii. “As a kid he would get dressed up in utilities and go out in the woods. I would have a vest for him and a vest for myself; and we would have canteens, a map, compasses and a GPS, and we would go patrolling in the woods.”

The sergeant major explained that his son is a third generation Marine on both sides of the family.

“I’m a Marine, my father was a Marine, his mom’s dad was a Marine, her brother was a Marine,” he said. “So he was just destined to be a Marine.”
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