Marine veteran brings commitment to Carolina
A former Marine, Zach Johnson transferred to Carolina to find his next challenge.
New Year, New Faces: As UNC-Chapel Hill prepares to begin a new fall semester, we introduce you to some of the new Tar Heels who will be looking to innovate, educate, serve – and change the world.
Zach Johnson has never been one to shy away from a challenge. He’s always been searching for a next one.
After high school, he tested himself against the rigorous demands of the Marine Corps. Then, before his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, he set out to train one of the angriest dogs at the handler’s school.
Now, three years removed from the Marines, Johnson is ready for his next challenge: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“What I love most about every challenge is that no matter the outcome, it always gives me the chance to grow as a person,” he said.
Johnson is among the 70 students arriving in Chapel Hill this fall through the Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program (C-STEP). A transfer from Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina, Johnson will be working toward a business degree at Carolina with his eyes set on law school.
Earning a college degree has been a longstanding goal for Johnson but one that was put on hold after high school. Looking to follow a family tradition, he had planned to join the Army. But after meeting with a Marine Corps recruiter, Johnson deviated from that plan.
“Once I talked to the recruiter and saw the uniform, I was sold,” the 24-year-old said. “It was the challenge. As an 18-year-old who thinks he’s invincible, it was everything you could dream of at the time.”
On his 18th birthday, Johnson enlisted in the Marines as a reservist — leaving the option of school open. But soon after enlisting, Johnson returned to his recruiter to enter an active-duty role as an infantryman. In March 2009, he shipped out to Parris Island to face the challenge of being a Marine head on.
“As much as it was scary, I thought ‘There’s a war going on and I really want to get into the action’,” he said. “Had I not made that decision I would have questioned myself the rest of my life.”
At infantry school, Johnson was assigned as a mortar man with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
It wasn’t long before Johnson saw the action he was looking for.
Right before his 20th birthday, his unit was deployed to the city of Marjah in the Helmand providence of Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He served as a radio operator for patrols during the six-month deployment.
After returning from deployment, Johnson was in search of something new. That led him to dog handler school.
“It was the challenge of supervising a living thing that doesn’t respond like a person does,” he said. “On the first day there, they gave us a personality test and I just wrote in big letters ‘I want a challenge.’ So they gave me this dog Gus. He was a beautiful, angry Golden Labrador. He bit me on the first day.”
But during dog handler school, the two bonded and less than a year after Johnson’s first deployment, he returned to Afghanistan with Gus for another six months.
“I learned so much from him,” Johnson said. “He was the most loyal dog once we harnessed his energy. Then we were inseparable. I would take him out on vehicle patrols. They would send us out to check for anything that looked suspicious and we would go out on patrol and I would have him check houses.”
When Gus was retired and Johnson’s enlistment was up in 2012, the veteran was eager to get back to his studies.
“I was ready to go to school,” he said. “I took two weeks off and started at Cape Fear. I was so excited for school.”
While at Cape Fear Community College, Johnson learned about C-STEP, which guarantees eventual admission to UNC for low- to moderate-income students in high school or early in their community college careers if they earn an associate degree from a partner school. Now in its ninth year, C-STEP is run by the UNC Admissions Office.
Johnson took home the C-STEP poster and began plotting his new path. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill became his goal. And his new challenge.
“As soon as I heard about Chapel Hill, it was over,” he said. “It’s the best. I love it. Everybody wants to learn. Every one is here to be a better person and make the world a better place. I felt like the energy is just so positive.”
The day after finishing at Cape Fear, Johnson moved to Chapel Hill and began taking summer courses. He plans on bringing the skills drilled into him in the Marines to Carolina to find success.
“If I had never joined the military and I just went to school, I would not have succeeded,” he said. “Being in the military gave me so much. It gave me so many skills that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
“One of the Marine Corps’ core values is commitment. I think instilling that in me through boot camp will help me see things through. Being challenged here will be a test of character. I love the challenge.”
