MSU alumnus Capt. Jacob Lamar was promoted from first lieutenant to captain in the Marine Corps on Monday.
Lamar was promoted by MSU alumna and his commanding officer, Lt. Col. Jennifer Nash.
“I thought it was really cool that my commanding officer — every unit only has one commanding officer — that she’s a Spartan and I’m a Spartan,” Lamar said.
Lamar is a member of Nash’s battalion, and is also one of the company’s executive officers.
“As battalion commander, I get that great privilege to promote marines,” Nash said.
Nash also felt the Spartan connection between herself and Lamar, especially since both are in the Marine Corps and stationed in California.
“It’s those connections we have, which is both being Spartans and having similar experiences both being from Michigan, that brings us together,” Nash said
At first, Lamar said he didn’t know if he was going to receive the promotion to captain.
“I’m actually on my way out of the Marine Corps transitioning back into the civilian world in a couple months — I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to see this promotion take place before (that),” Lamar said. “The fact that I did, I’m extremely proud and it’s kind of a capstone of all my hard work in the past four years.”
Once Lamar found out he was being promoted to captain, he asked Nash if she would be the one to promote him.
“As a Michigan State (alumna), he thought it was a pretty unique thing in which one Spartan could promote another Spartan,” Nash said.
To get promoted, it all depends on where a person’s lineal standing is coming out of basic camp, a six-month school that places people in a specialty within the Marine Corps. It also depends on evaluations from superior officers, Lamar said.
“That basically determines when and if you get promoted,” Lamar said.
However, even though Nash did promote Lamar, she didn’t get to decide that Lamar got promoted because of the Marine Corps’ promotion process.
“It’s a panel of 21 officers who reviews his records and performances over the last four years of his career and then they determine based on his performances if he has the potential to fill that rank,” Nash said.
With this, Lamar’s experience at MSU helped him learn principles and lessons that helped guide him to his promotion to captain, he said.
“There’s a lot of pride when it becomes to being a Spartan and what it represents,” Lamar said. “The community, the culture and loyalty and pride.”
These principles ultimately helped Lamar and his transition into the Marine Corps, which he said, “is the elite fighting force (out) of our military forces.”
“There’s a lot of pride and tradition that goes along with being in the Marine Corps as well,” Lamar said. “It correlates perfectly from being a Spartan and MSU grad, to transitioning into the Marine Corps.”
