Decorah native earns "meritorious promotion" at Marine basic training

Decorah native Austin Keck has wrapped up 13 weeks of MCRD--Marine Corps basic training--in San Diego.

At the end of the training, he received a special honor--Keck was singled out among the 87 people in his platoon as the highest performing trainee, earning "meritorious promotion."

Austin tells decorahnews.com he feels more confident in his abilities after completing the training.  He entered the Marines, he says, because he wanted to be a hero to his younger siblings.  Austin is the son of Amy Buddenberg and Gerry Keck of Decorah.

As for the famous toughness of Marine Corps training, Keck says he didn't take it to heart.  He knew the purpose was to train and harden the enlistees.  "When stuff's blowing up around you, they want to make sure you keep doing your job," he tells decorahnews.com.