Photo submitted to Times Observer Former Marine Ken Hahn stands with his daughter Naomi above Point Park in Pittsburgh right after her first interview with the Marine Corps.

When God gave former U.S. Marine and Pennsylvania State Police Officer Ken Hahn two girls, he thought the long tradition of military service amongst many of the men in his family had come to an end.

That was, until, his youngest daughter Naomi, a senior at Warren Area High School came along and announced her intentions to attend the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) after graduation. Majoring in International Studies and a minoring in Rhetoric and Writing, she currently has hopes of a career in the Marine Corps Public affairs.

“She surprised me by wanting to join the Marine Corps,” Naomi’s father Ken said. “None of my nephews or anyone else in my family of my generation had joined the military.”

With a history of men serving with the Army, Ken was the first in his family to deviate course by joining the Marines. His father was drafted into the Army and the only one to serve during the Vietnam era. Several of his uncles were Army men and his grandfather on his mother’s side served during World War II.

“It was a common thing” for the men in his family to do, “join the military,” according to Ken.

“I started out in the Army reserves and went to Army boot camp between my 11th and 12th grade of high school, I was seventeen at the time,” he said.

“I was going to skip career day and decided to go see my Army recruiter but he didn’t show up and a Marine Corps recruiter showed up in his place and I ended up joining the Marine Corps,’ he laughs as he remembers, “I got gung-ho about the Marine Corps.”

A year later he completed his second military boot camp in two years with the Marine Corps. Between 1989 and 1994, Ken did 4 1/2 years of active duty in the Marine Corps.

According to Ken, his belief in a sense of duty to serve the country meant he never really gave a second thought to whether or not he would serve.

“In order for our country to survive, every generation needs to step up,” according to Hahn. “It’s a civic thing to do, a sense of patriotism. That’s why I joined.”

While stationed in Okinawa, Japan, Ken missed the initial operations of Desert Storm. Although he never saw any direct combat himself, he was eventually deployed on the U.S.S. Tarawa with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit to work with the Kuwaitis performing operations to support and help train the in-country forces.

With the sole focus of joining the military after high school, it wasn’t until he was in the Marine Corps that his goals beyond enlisted service began to take shape. After being stationed on a ship for six months, he got a sense of how officers lived alongside enlisted men.

“I was in a berthing area with 250 guys,” he said. “Whereas there were officers in the same area as 16 of us, two officers. So, I got out of the Marine Corps, my intention was to get a college degree and to go back as an officer.”

Due to the U.S. reduction in military forces under President Clinton, Ken cites that downsizing is what eventually lead him on a path to the State Police instead.

But as the saying goes, once a Marine always a Marine; and the values that were instilled upon him naturally informed his approach to raising his two daughters. It wouldn’t be until the last couple of years that they would discover just how much those values would influence Naomi’s decision to follow her father’s lead.

“He would sing me the Marine Corps Hymn as a lullaby,” she said. “He raised me with Marine Corps values, honor, courage, commitment. He really focused on never quitting, always staying there to the end.”

“I wanted a career with those values that I could fulfill and I saw it in the Marine Corps,” Naomi said.

Naomi said it was when she discovered VMI, where she’s going to college, that sparked her desire to join up.

“Out of the blue she went and picked (VMI) to check out,” during her college visits, her dad interjected. “While we were there she was talking to all of the different branches, she was talking to a couple girls following the path of Marine officers. I remember her coming back saying she wanted to go into the Marine Corps,” because of the sense of respect Marine’s seemed to garner on campus.

“I’m excited to serve,” Naomi said. “I’m following the footsteps of all these people who have served before.”

Once Naomi put her application to VMI, Naomi’s dad said he knew she was serious.

“She has the same drive that I have,” he said once she puts her mind to something, “it’s going to happen.”

“I’m very proud of her,” he said. “God gave me two girls, and I raised them to protect themselves so they’re strong and can go on their own.”

“When I was growing up, my dad, we’d be in the kitchen, and he’d be teaching us punching moves, and how to take out someone’s leg,” Naomi said. “I always found it so exciting.”

In addition to the Marine Corps hymn lullaby, Ken always used slogans he picked up in the military such as, improvise, overcome, adapt; if job’s worth doing, do it right. According to him, it was important to impart the lessons he learned getting through the military.

“I don’t have any fear as far as Naomi going off and there being a war,” he said. “You can’t predict that.”

“She’s smart, she’s very resourceful,” Ken added. “I feel like I raised her well her enough that she’s going to take care of herself and those who serve.”

“She’s going to be the best of the best.”