Carlos Paz-Sosa decided during his senior year in high school that he wanted to enlist in the Marines, but soon got bad news from a recruiter: He would need to shed more than 100 pounds before he could ship to boot camp, according to a Marine Corps news story. Paz-Sosa struggled with his weight throughout his childhood and he was far outside of the Marines’ physical requirements.
With the support of his family, his recruiter, and others, Paz-Sosa not only lost the weight, but on July 12 graduated from boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot San Diego.
“It took a lot of going to the gym and eating healthy,” Paz-Sosa said in the news release. “My mom makes good food, so portion control was probably the hardest part.”
Getting in shape for boot camp marked a turning point for Paz-Sosa, who had been overweight for most of his life, he said. It took him roughly a year of diet and exercise before he was able to stand in the yellow footprints at the receiving phase of recruit training.
Paz-Sosa received a lot of encouragement from his mother, who told him, “If this is what you want to do, go ahead,” he said.
His brother initially kidded him about joining the Marines, but he began to support Paz-Sosa once he started getting trim.
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As he waited to ship to recruit training, Paz-Sosa showed his empathy for others, said his recruiter Staff Sgt. Aubrey Larsen. While many young recruits write pre-departure letters to close friends and family, Paz-Sosa wrote letters to his fellow poolees.
“He wrote catered letters for all of them,” Larsen said in the news release. “Every letter was so personal. He wrote about 15 of them. It was incredible.”
Paz-Sosa’s months of eating right and working out ultimately paid off when he joined India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment at San Diego.
Marine Corps recruit training is both physically and mentally demanding, and Paz-Sosa’s senior drill instructor saw the young man rise to meet the Corps’ expectations.
“When Pvt. Paz-Sosa first got to the platoon, he was very timid,” Staff Sgt. Douglas Perez said in the news story. “He didn’t communicate well. As time progressed there was a giant change. He became more vocal with the platoon. If he saw somebody mess up, he’d go fix them; and he kept losing weight throughout training. His transformation was pretty noticeable.”
Paz-Sosa said that he especially bonded with his rack mate Pvt. Lincoln Jameson. The two would occasionally give each other a hard time, but now, he says, they’ll be lifelong friends.
After three months of intense training, Paz-Sosa earned his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor as a full-fledged Marine and graduated in front of his family
“When I first saw him, I said, ‘I love you; I’m so proud of you,’” his mother Maria Sosa said in the news story.
Larsen said she was impressed by how much weight Paz-Sosa had lost at boot camp.
“When I first saw him, I was like, ‘Where’s the other half of you?” Larsen said. “He had lost so much weight before he left and even more while he was in training. I asked him, ‘Did you believe you were going to make it?’ and he said, ‘Yes. The whole time.’”
Looking back at his boot camp experience Paz-Sosa recalled how some of the other recruits needed more help than him, and he felt good assisting them.
“It was a heartwarming experience to help them become Marines,” he said. “The entire experience was definitely worth it. Look where we are now.”
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