Story By Lance Cpl. Brandon Dulaney
Staff Writer

I want to be a fireman. I want to be a doctor. I want to be a football player — these are just a few ambitions scrolling through the minds of children who want to follow people they look up to. But for 9-year-old Joseph Debacco, he just does not want to settle for the status-quo, he wants to be a Marine. Better yet, he wants to be a Marine pilot.

When I first met Joseph, he came off just like any other 9-year-old. But, Joseph is not like most other children his age. Joseph was diagnosed with Metastatic Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma in stage three. It is a very rare and often painful cancer of the muscular and skeletal systems. Doctors have placed his chance of survival at 10 percent.

The day I met Joseph, he was flying around in the MV-22 Osprey simulator and might I add, he was doing pretty good. He had a smile from ear to ear and was locked onto everything that crossed his path on the screen. He maneuvered his aircraft like he had been doing this for years.

Read the rest of this story in the current issue of the RotoVue.

Royal Brunei Land Force soldiers and U.S. Marines load a simulated mudslide victim onto a stretcher for transportation to a field hospital during a Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training Brunei 2009 humanitarian and disaster relief exercise in Southeast Asia. CARAT is a series of bi-lateral exercises held annually to strengthen relationships and enhance the operational readiness of the participating forces. Photo by Canadian Forces Cpl. Dustin Schalue
 

Marines with Lima Company, Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 22nd Marine  Expeditionary Unit, clear a staircase in a training area near Camp Buehring, Kuwait, Aug. 10. The 22nd MEU is ashore conducting sustainment training in Kuwait and is currently serving as the theater reserve force for U.S.  Central Command. Photo by Cpl. Justin Martinez
 

Sgt. Zachary Ritter test fires the tail gun in a CH-53D helicopter, assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 362, during a nighttime flight in Helmand province, Afghanistan, Aug. 3. HMH-362 is deployed to Afghanistan in support of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. Photo by Sgt. Timothy Brumley


A UH-1N Huey helicopter from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 (Reinforced), 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, hovers over Udairi Army Airfield, Kuwait, Aug. 10. Marines from VMM-263 (rein), the aviation combat element for the 22nd MEU, joined other elements of the MEU ashore for sustainment training aboard Camp Buehring, Kuwait. Photo by Cpl. Theodore Ritchie