Veteran Spotlight: Marine Cpl. Andrew Coville

YARMOUTH, Mass. — Andrew Coville served his country in the Marine Corps from 2006 to 2010 as a corporal. 

 

Born in Yarmouth,he graduated from Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School and did his basic training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C. 

 

"I joined with my friend Nick Xiarhos on the 'buddy' program ... we got separated early on and I broke both my hips and had to have surgery," he said. "I did all the hard stuff but didn't get a chance to walk across the parade deck and participate in the ceremony." 

 

He would go on to infantry training in North Carolina and his first assignment would take him to Camp Lejune with the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion.

 

"Most of the battalion was deployed in early 2007," Coville said. "I started living the full Marine Corps life." 

 

In 2008, he was deployed to the Al Anbar Province in Iraq.

 

"I wanted to go to war and defend my country. The Marines had fought hard, the last five years there and the area I operated in was quite stable," he said. "It was kind of a letdown for me but we were fortunate not to lose any Marines." 

 

Coville's second deployment would take him to the Helmand Province in Afghanistan.

 

"It was very important for the Marines to go in and stabilize the area. We were trying to get the Taliban out and try to create the same dynamic that the Marines did in Iraq," he said.

 

Coville provided this perspective on his service in the Marine Corps: "I left Cape Cod at 18 years of age. I owe everything I've ever done to the Marine Corps ...

 

"I'm forever grateful. It laid a foundation for me — the discipline, motivation, teamwork, leadership — I owe it all to the Marines."

 

I asked him his thoughts on losing a Marine and he responded with this: "It's terrible. You have to remember, everyone is not a close friend. It's worse when you know the person. We lost eight Marines on deployment. 

 

"When my friend Nick was killed, it's something that you compartmentalize. When you're deployed to a war zone you know Marines are going to get killed. It shakes up your own mortality, you don't deal with it then, you deal with it later. You have to remember that you're in an environment where you have to keep moving."

 

His thoughts on being a United States Marine? "It's the greatest privilege I've ever had, wearing a Marine uniform in defense of my country."

 

Coville spent 14 years with the Yarmouth Police Department, retiring this year as a sergeant. During his time there, he created a veterans outreach program to connect veterans with mental health and social service support. He is now a writer and documentary filmmaker, and is working on a documentary about his friend, Corp. Nicholas Xiarhos, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2009.

 

Cpl. Andrew Coville, thank you for your service to our great country.