Issue 10: Tech from the Military

JAMAICA TO OKINAWA | 35
JAMAICA,
a mountainous
island about the size
of Connecticut located
within the Caribbean
archipelago, is home
to a very diverse
population with about
90% African ancestry.
I met recruiters to see world. The Navy talked
about subs, but I am not a fan of water for
a few months at a time. The Marines talked
about reputation and travel. I joined in September
1991.
I was 18 in October and celebrated my birthday
in boot camp. The Marines and Army
have aggressive recruiters. I really wanted
Marines, longest boot camp with more intangibles.
After boot camp, I was then assigned
a MOS and went to Squadron school for infantryman-everyone
in Marine does infantry
regardless of MOS. I became a warehouse
administrative clerk from anything from tents
to tanks. I went to Albany, Georgia for that
WHAT IS MOS?
3.26 | CC BY-SA 2.0
Military Occupational Specialty code is a
nine character code used in the United
States Army and United States Marines to
identify a specific job. In the United States
Air Force, Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSC)
are used. In the United States Navy, a system
of naval ratings and designators is used
along with the Navy Enlisted Classification
(NEC) system.
Columbus claimed the island for Spain in 1492.
Within a few decades, the original population
became extinct from European disease, kidnapping,
enslavement, and genocide.
By the early 1660s, Jamaica was sparsely populated
by Spaniards controlling the island as a
weigh station until the Treaty of Madrid. England
assumed control and cultivated the land with vast
sugar plantations and African slaves. By 1730,
Jamaica produced 15,500 tons of sugar, placing it
as Britain’s most prized colony.
When the slave trade was abolished in 1807,
Jamaica produced 78,000 tons of sugar and
housed 324,000 African slaves. Racism, exploitation,
and anti-slavery campaigns continued until
The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 passed parliament
and finally ended slavery in the British
Empire.
Jamaica, slowly and gradually, attained full independence
from Britain (1962) by joining the
Commonwealth of Nations. The United States recruited
90,000 Jamaicans to work on the Panama
Canal from 1881 to World War I. During both
world wars, Jamaican men were recruited for
service on many American bases in the region.
The 1965 Harte-Celler Immigration Reform Act
changed the immigration policy and opened the
door for a surge of people moving into America.
By 2009, 3.5 million people came from the
Caribbean, roughly about 21 percent were from
Jamaica. Roderick left Jamaica to finish his last
year of high school in Greenacres, Florida and
started a lifelong career as inspiration to many
around him.
Origins Scientific Research Society