As a child, Dale Jr always wanted to follow his father's footstep and enlisted in the Marines at age 17. He served with the 1st Marine Division, Third Battalion First Marines (the 3/1) at Camp Pendleton, California. Dale served 3 deployments, the last two during Operation Iraqi Freedom I and II.
The Tuesday before he was killed in action, Dale was wounded and was taken to the hospital. He was told he could go home. Instead, he hitched a ride back to his unit with just his uniform, no gear or weapon according to his commanding officer. He reunited with his squad on Friday and was killed on Sunday while retrieving 3 marines who were down inside a house.
Dale received two Purple Hearts and, posthumously, the Silver Star for Valor.
