He was in fourth grade having lunch in the Elcan-King Elementary School cafeteria with his buddy when Kyle Horne first saw a marine. 

He didn’t know why he was there, but his blue uniform looked sharp, and Horne wanted to wear one too.

“I thought, ‘I want to wear that, I want to be marine one day’,” Horne said.

Flash forward nine years, and Horne’s wish has come true. As if going to Troy University on a band scholarship for playing trumpet wasn’t enough, Horne, 19, wanted to bring to life his original dream of becoming a marine.

In high school he wanted to join law enforcement, and he thought becoming a marine would be like having one foot in the door. He met a recruiter at Troy last fall and decided it was now or never.

“The earlier I got in, the more experience I’d have when I finally got out of school,” Horne said.

Horne swore in to boot camp Dec. 12, 2013. Horne said back in the 1970s and 1980s, the time between swearing in and being shipped was a matter of days. Now, aspiring marines have to wait as long as seven months before heading to boot camp.

If Horne was going to return to school and keep the schedule he had set for himself, he needed to be shipped sooner than that.

Less than a month later, he was at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, South Carolina.

“It was like God had a plan,” Horne said. “I needed to go in January to get back in time for school. So I went in Jan. 6.”

The dean of Troy University put Horne’s scholarships on hold, giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream.

Now that boot camp and infantry camp has ended, Horne is enjoying the rest of his summer. He returns back to Troy this fall as a sophomore. While on reserve, he will have to report to his base in Montgomery, Alabama, one weekend a month. The rest of the month is dedicated to being a full-time student.

His major is criminal justice, but joining the marines has given him a second thought.

“Now I’m actually think about changing it to education,” Horne said. “I want to teach history.”