There are dreams and then there are dreams — the … aspirations that, if they come true, will affect a family, even a nation or world, for generations to come.
Cadet Master Sgt. Marcus Lee of the California Wing’s Fullerton Composite Squadron 56 knows something about dreams, both ordinary and extraordinary.
First, consider the ordinary. Every football player who ever laced up a cleat has visualized what Lee has actually accomplished.
In 2022, as a junior at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, team kicker Lee got the chance to deliver a win over rival Mater Dei from Santa Ana, then the nation’s top-rated high school team.
Snap …
Kick …
Good!
Bosco wins! Bosco wins!
“It was the Southern California Division I Championship. But it was also the national championship, as well, because we were ranked No. 3 in the nation and they were No. 1 at that time,” Lee said.
“By beating them, we were the No. 1 team.”
On Twitter, now known as X, Lee was quick to give credit to his snapper and holder.
All the practices, all the snaps, holds and kicks good and bad, shared one crucial quality.
“We all hold each other accountable,” Lee said. “Through that camaraderie and overcoming those hurdles made us a tight unit.”
Humility shines when Lee talks about his winning kick.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “I was just the person who swung my leg through. My snapper was the one who got it right where I needed it. My holder was the one who held it at the perfect angle.
“All I did was give that cherry on top.”
Lee joined Civil Air Patrol in November 2020, after he overheard a school friend talking about the organization. CAP helped his pilot dream blossom.
“For a very long time, I wanted to attend a service academy and fly in the military,” Lee said.
“So I thought CAP was a perfect program for me to develop my leadership skills and prepare my mindset for a military career.”
Lee has learned a key lesson in leadership as a member of the Fullerton squadron, which boasts more than 100 cadets in its ranks.
“It’s taught me so much. But the main (leadership lesson) I really took out of it is a leader is an adviser, an educator, and a mentor. … Using a command voice and being strict is very crucial.
“But the leader must also be an adviser and a mentor to his or her cadets.”
Those CAP lessons carry over to other parts of his life. He’s active in student government at his school of 800. He serves as a liaison between the student government and Bosco’s athletic director.
Asked if Civil Air Patrol made Lee a better kicker and conversely, if football made him a better CAP cadet, Lee didn’t hesitate.
His answer: “100%.”
“When I first started out as a cadet, I had a first sergeant who was very, very strict. At times I felt like she picked on me for things I didn’t even mess up on,” Lee recalled.
“But honestly, I thank her for that, because it developed my resilience through criticism.
“Because Bosco football is so big and it’s being watched by so many different people,” he continued, “I’ve developed that resilience and that ability to block out negativity from everyone else. I think that’s made me focus on the field better.
“And being a kicker trained me to handle even the most stressful situations, whether it’s a winning field goal against Mater Dei, or the opening kickoff in a big game. It’s helped me focus on the business at hand.”
While being a first sergeant in a large cadet corps can be “a logistical nightmare,” Lee said, the focus forged in football makes him a better leader.
Not that any of his achievements occurred overnight or anywhere close to it. Every dream — like a game-winning kick — begins with work, hard work.
A few months before he joined CAP, in the COVID-19 summer of 2020 and with his soccer team on lockdown — no practice, no games — Lee began kicking a football with his dad at a local park, Lions Field.
Initially, the teenager wanted to play both sports. But to borrow a phrase from the NCAA’s Southeastern Conference, at St. John Bosco, football just means more.
“Honestly, football’s a pretty big deal at my school,” Lee said. “I just had to stick with football for the rest of my high school career.”
His career — coupled with a glowing performance at the Chris Sailer Kicking Camp — helped Lee get a scholarship offer from Pomona College, as well as interest from Cornell, Dartmouth, and Columbia. Over the years, the Sailer camp, which conducts camps around the country, has helped young kickers earn scholarships at Power Five schools like Michigan and LSU.
And while a college football scholarship is an honor, Lee earned something even bigger, especially for an aspiring military aviator — appointments to the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the U.S. Naval Academy.
Lee begins his career as a Navy midshipman this summer. But as of now, he only wants to play football in his first year.
“I want to pursue my academics and set my career up as a naval aviator. A lot of school, a lot of extracurriculars will be involved, and I honestly don’t want football to get in the way of that.”
Even a great freshman football season wouldn’t cause Lee to waver from his aviation dreams.
“I do not think I would change my mind,” Lee said. “I’m very set on my career as a naval aviator and serving my country.”
Success in football, in academics, and in CAP are small dreams compared to those generational aspirations that can transform life’s trajectory. And often, they’re fueled by inspiration.
For Marcus Lee, that bigger dream came from his parents, Tony and Jennifer Lee, Korean American immigrants. As a kid, their son heard their moving story over dinner at the family table.
Tony Lee built a chain of auto repair shops. Jennifer Lee is a homemaker.“They came here with little to no money, no resources, barely spoke a word of English,” the cadet said. “But they were able to hold on to the American dream and work for something that’s so big, but so amazing.”
He added, “I not only want to thank them for giving me the opportunity but thank this country for giving me all the blessings I could ask for. What I want to do as a military officer is pay it forward and give back to the nation that I love.”
Lee’s story — and that of his family — seems to embody the Five Pillars of Civil Air Patrol. And his big dream — the desire to give back to the nation — is more important than winning kicks.
As he said, that game-winning kick against Mater Dei was just a swing of the leg.
But the bigger dream, to make it in America — forged by his folks before he was born, one he carries into the next generation as an aspiring Navy pilot — is more important, for him, for his family, potentially for all of us.
You could call it the cherry on top._____Paul SouthContributing Writer
