This past week you didn’t have to look far to find another one. He was relaxing with family and friends in Jeanerette.
U.S. Marine Sgt. Ranaldo “Ronnie” Sereal, 26, walked into the neighborhood he grew up in last weekend after walking some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the world during three different combat tours of Iraq. Sereal said he grew up and met the challenge of war time while he was overseas.
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The Jeanerette native who now lives in New Orleans was a long way from his hometown, his wife and his football-playing days at Nicholls State University. He interrupted his college education and enlisted in the U.S. Marines because his family needed money, Sereal said Tuesday in The Daily Iberian.
Deep down, he wondered if he could cut it when the shooting started. He answered his own question quickly and to the point where he has been decorated three times. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Valor in 2006, the Navy Achievement Medal in 2005 and the Navy Accommodation Medal in 2004.
“I used to be afraid of failure and now I am not too scared of anything,” Sereal was quoted as saying in the March issue of People magazine, which featured him and his story on Page 80.
“When I first got over there, I was nervous. I heard stories of people freezing up, and I just did not want to be that guy,” he said in this newspaper.
Sereal answered the call to duty, above and beyond, repeatedly on his tours.
The Jeanerette Senior High School graduate has become a role model for his family. Surely, he can be held in that position by others proud of a native son has excelled in combat.
DONSHOOPMAN
SENIOREDITOR
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