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War Profiles: Ruben Marinelarena '02-'04, Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve

In addition to the stress of training, Marinelarena said, it was hard to deal with some of the personalities he came across. But he found ways to cope with the “one-track minds” with which he found himself coming into contact.

“I look into the future, I think about what I’ll be doing in six months, three years, five years,” Marinelarena said. “Whenever I get a chance, I open a book that’s non-military-related. There’s lots of people I’m with that are going through the same problems. We joke about it, we poke fun at it.”

Back at Harvard, Marinelarena was a government concentrator with a focus on international relations who belonged to the Sigma Chi fraternity.

Widland is also Sigma Chi’s “sweetheart”—an honorary position in the fraternity that she was elected to this semester.

Upon her selection, Marinelarena called her from camp to serenade her with “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi,” a traditional fraternity song written in 1911.

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Widland described Marinelarena as “a very fun and easy-going person,” as well as “really committed to making the world a better place, even if it involves personal sacrifice.”

“I never expected to go off to Harvard and have a boyfriend in the Marine Corps who would go off to help with Operation Enduring Freedom,” Widland said. But, she added, it has been an educational experience.

It has certainly been one for Marinelarena as well.

He has been trained in the tactics of warfare. He has seen fellow reservists activated and separated from their families, businesses and the rest of their lives. He has learned, he said , to accept difficult situations that he lacks the power to change.

He also says he has learned about the nature of sacrifice.

“It puts things in perspective to know that there are men and women making greater sacrifices than I am,” he says. “I am still very proud to serve my country and help out in any way I can. It’s the least I can do.”

—Staff writer Laura L. Krug can be reached at krug@fas.harvard.edu.

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