Lance Corporal William “Billy” Hutson

Lance Corporal William “Billy” Hutson said he knew he needed a change in life. That realization is what led him to eight years of service in the United States Marine Corps. From 1999 to 2007, Hutson lived and breathed the Marine life, until an unfortunate training injury in 2007 prior to going overseas caused him to be medically discharged.

Although Hutson wasn’t able to join his unit when they left after his injury, it does not make his years of service and dedication any less valuable – to his country or to him. “Being a Marine opened my eyes to what I was missing,” he said. It was just the change he was looking for in life as it taught him the discipline he needed and, according to his wife, it also showed him he had potential to have an impact on the world around him.

While he was enlisted, he married Ginger Tims Hutson. They’ve been married for seventeen years now and are raising an amazing son, Will, who wants to follow in his dad’s footsteps to also become a Marine one day. Both Billy and Ginger said that the camaraderie of military life is something they greatly miss. Though nothing can take the place of the tightknit community bond of the families living on base together, they’ve both found ways to connect with local veterans. Ginger is a member of the Veteran Spouses of America Foundation, a locally based support community for spouses of those who have served. “We have lots of local veterans here,” Ginger said. “And they need each other.”

Billy commented that one of the most challenging parts for him after his years of service, outside of losing some of that comraderie, was reintegrating into the work force. “Our military skills don’t always transfer to the ‘real world,’” he admitted. But he was no stranger to hard work, so he jumped right in to the work force and began to climb that proverbial ladder.

Lance Corporal Hutson continues to proudly fly his American flag because, as he said, “the American flag means a lot”. His hope is that America will one day be unified again, like it was on 9/12.