Meet Cpl. Juan (Charlie) Lira, Jr. — 2016 Veteran
Cpl. Juan Lira, Jr. is known to everyone as Charlie. Charlie was born December 24, 1983 to Juan and Alma Lira has lived in San Antonio all his life. Following in his father's footsteps he enlisted in the United States military. But he chose not to enlist in the Navy as his dad did. Instead, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.
After graduating from high school in 2003 he stepped on the yellow footprints at MCRD San Diego, California on October 12, 2004. Upon his completion of boot camp he went on to attend The School of Infantry which led to his MOS as an 0341. After completing SOI, as it is called, he joined 1/23 WPNS CO. Upon joining the unit after their deployment he went on to 3/23 to serve and also attended training in 29 Palms, California called Mojave Viper.
Following his training he deployed to Iraq in September of 2007 through 2008 where he performed the jobs of driver, machine gunner, and radio operator, while conducting patrols in the area. At this point his platoon was tasked in training the Iraqi PSD. In this training they had to teach them how to march in basic patrols and formations and also how to clean and operate their weapons.
During this portion of the training the platoon was also tasked with a mission to secure routes being used by insurgents. At the end of this tour in Iraq he returned to 1/23. While stateside he meet his wife. Married for seven years now they have two healthy boys, Josiah who is six years old and Jeremiah who is six months old.
While having their first child, Juan (Charlie) was getting ready for another deployment but this time to Afghanistan. Although he was stateside for the birth of his first son he ended up leaving his wife and 3-month-old son for his deployment. While training in California before heading overseas, he had the opportunity to become an IDD dog handler.
During his training for this new task, he went to South Carolina, where he learned how to properly handle the Labrador retriever trained as a bomb dog. He learned how to notice the change in the dog's behavior as he caught the scent of the explosives buried to simulate IEDs. Also he learned how to properly handle explosives such as HME, TNT, C4, and blasting caps.
While in country they conducted patrols in the area and conducted searches of routes, buildings, cars and fields with his dog to make sure the area was safe for him and the marines in his charge. Being involved in these situations made him think about how life is important to him. While the Afghan Special Forces unit had their own gate to enter they thought they could enter the U.S side gate of Camp Leatherneck.
While the group was fine with being stopped and going around, one truck of guys were not and started getting worked up and started yelling at him and the other Marines who were present. After calming that one group down we noticed we were surrounded by these guys. Knowing they are trained by U.S forces we knew what could happen. Well what happened next surprisee all of us. Hoping these guys were there to help us and us to help them he would have never thought we would be looking at a pistol pointed to the head.
While in country, Osama Bin Laden was captured. After eight years of service Charlie decided it was time to be home with his family. Charlie was Honorably Discharged On October 12, 2012. He was discharged at the rank of Corporal. His awards include the Iraqi Campaign ribbon, the Global War on Terrorism service medal, the Sea Service Deployment ribbon 2nd award, the Armed Forces Reserve medal with "M" Device 2nd award, the SharpShooter rifle badge, Afghanistan Campaign Medal (Helmand Province) NATO Medal-ISAF Agfhanistan and the IDD Detector Dog Handler.
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Jeff Anderson
CEO/Founder, Rebuilding Warriors
