Joe Torres anticipates July 4 with a perspective slightly different than that of many Americans.
“The reason isn’t just to look at fireworks,” Torres said. “The focus shouldn’t be around drinking, it should be a day of reflection and understanding, because otherwise you forget.”

Torres graduated from Grand Valley State University in 2012 and went into the Master of Business Administration program after that. Right now, he’s taking a break from school to gain work experience as a business analyst for Travelers Insurance, but he plans to go back in the fall of 2014 to finish up his degree.

At 26, he’s been married to his wife Meghan for two years, and they have a 1-year-old son named Jacob with another kid on the way.

But just a few years ago, things were a little different.

Back then, he was waiting and watching for IED (Improvised Explosive Device) activity from a foxhole dug in the desert sand or from the window of an abandoned building. Only a few years back, he was performing counterinsurgency operations by going into towns and “basically looking for bad guys.”
“When I was in high school, it was—the country is at war, you have to help out,” he said.

Torres was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps until 2009. He started out in the infantry then got invited into the Force Recon unit, one of the Marines Special Operations Capable forces that gathers intelligence.

“I had signed up in 2004 when I was 17, so I actually signed up a year early,” he said, but he didn’t begin his four-year service until 2005.

The Force Recon selection process took six months before Torres was part of the unit. Over the following two years he was stationed mostly in North Carolina and other places throughout the country while he completed the training. Then, in 2007 he did an eight-month tour in Iraq.

Torres’ experiences lend him a slightly different understanding of Independence Day than those who have never donned the combat boots and fatigues.

“I think it’s important for the Fourth of July, as far as our independence and how we broke off from that, to remember the sacrifices that had to be made to do that,” Torres said.

The Fourth of July holiday should be celebrated within the context of why the holiday is there in the first place, he said.

“My family took it pretty seriously, so if anything I would say I continued the tradition of taking it seriously,” he said, mentioning that his dad and uncle were both in the Vietnam War.

“We kind of stand on the shoulders of our parents and our forefathers, and it’s hard to remember their challenges,” he said. “Today, it’s hard for any generation to grasp what other generations have gone through, but it’s certainly worth our effort to try.”

With other holidays like Veterans Day and Memorial Day, Torres said it’s more implicit than explicit to remember veterans on Independence Day.

However, he added that the U.S. is generally good about honoring its service members on the average day.

Though the country might have problems, Torres said he believes veterans are still taken pretty good care of through projects like the GI Bill and the Wounded Veterans program.

“Grand Valley’s been good to veterans,” he said. “I’ve had great teachers, (and) always had great support.”