Life is coming full circle for G-1 Personnel Readiness Officer III Marine Expeditionary Force Chief Warrant Officer 5 Carlos V. Cruz.
A graduate of McAllen Memorial High School, the Mustangs, a warrant officer is known as a “mustang,” indicating his move from enlisted Marine to commissioned servicemember.
The rank of CWO5 has only been in existence since 1992, the year he graduated from Memorial.
The only CWO5 to hail from McAllen is also returning to his Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps roots.
Following a 31-year career, Cruz retired Jan. 1 with full military honors and will become a senior JROTC instructor in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Cruz found his way into a life of service through the late Lt. Col. Richard H. Moore, then-JROTC instructor at McAllen Memorial.
“When I was a teenager (I was) a little misguided,” Cruz said, praising Moore and his JROTC staff for approaching him and introducing the program.
“I found guidance. I found direction. I loved the structure of it,” he said. “(Moore) really did a lot for those students, the hundreds of students who passed through his doors.”
Cruz said he graduated high school on a Thursday, and by Sunday he was on an airplane to San Diego for boot camp.
“Two things: I knew I wanted to do something growing up. The first motivation was my mother. She came to this country when she was very young. This country offered her the American dream. She became a citizen in the late ’90s. She was a single mom, raising my sister and I, working three jobs, and this would be a way for me to pay back what this country offered my mother.”
Cruz served as an enlisted Marine for 13 years, achieving the rank of Gunnery Sergeant before being appointed by the Secretary of the Navy to the rank of warrant officer in 2006.
“That never crossed my mind,” he said of being commissioned. “I had enlisted (and) I was like, ‘OK I enjoy what I’m doing.’ About the time I was a sergeant, a chief warrant officer said, ‘You are going to be a chief warrant officer one day. You don’t see the potential I see in you.’ The discipline, the leadership, the ability to guide others … I grew in the Marine Corps in every aspect you can think of.”
He was appointed his current rank as a Chief Warrant Officer 5 by General Eric Smith, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, at a ceremony in January 2021 at the Museum of the Marine Corps, Quantico, Virginia.
The rank-holder is known as a unicorn, because of its rarity. Of the 180,000 members of the U.S. Marine Corps, there are only 112 CWO5s.
Through his three-decade career, Cruz was deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Souther Watch; with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing to Al Asad Airbase Iraq, where he participated in Operation Iraqi Surge and Iraqi Sovereignty; to U.S. Southern Command, Joint Task Force-Bravo in the Republic of Honduras as a Spanish linguist in support of Operation Enduring Freedom-Central America and U.S. Southern Command Situational Assessment Team; and was embedded as a Spanish linguist with the Honduran Air Force and U.S. Agency for International Development, for which he operated a multi-national — Honduras, Colombia, U.S. Army, and U.S. Navy — helicopter landing zone in support of humanitarian and disaster relief efforts in the north. Cruz also served in Okinawa, Japan, as well as the Daegu province Republic of Korea.
A retirement ceremony was held in Cruz’s honor on Dec. 12, 2022, at Camp Pendleton, California, and he was awarded the Legion Of Merit.
Additional decorations include two Meritorious Service Medals, two awards of the Joint Service Commendation Medal, a Joint Service Achievement Medal, six Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, four Marine Corps Good Conduct Medals, a Armed Forces Service Medal, a Humanitarian Service Medal, a Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal and various unit and campaign awards.
Cruz holds a bachelor of arts in Arts and Science from the University of Arkansas Grantham. He is married to Atsuko Watanabe, from Nagoya, Japan. She serves as American Citizen Services Section, U.S. Consulate General Naha.
Cruz humbly speaks about his service, but his voice becomes excited when speaking of his next role, guiding young people in the JROTC program.
“(It’s) full circle for me: To continue to give back to community,” he said. “To produce a better citizen … ultimately it’s the goal of the program.”
