By Virginia Giorgis
Bridger Valley Pioneer

LYMAN — “The few, the proud — semper fidelis, always faithful.” These are the words U.S. Marines live by; they also live by the belief that if everybody could be a Marine, they (Marines) wouldn’t be the Marines.
And one former LHS graduate has taken this to heart. Graduating from Lyman High School in May 1998 and not having a set goal, Zachary Storrud enlisted in the U.S. Marines in Novembef 1998.
Storrud is the son of Arnie and Joy Storrud of Lyman. He is married to Dani Cucci from Sao Paula, Brazil, and they have two daughters: Isabelle, 16, and Sophia, 3.

As the years have passed — 18 1/2 of them — Zachary (Zach) Storrud has made the Marines his career, moving up in the ranks. A corporal in 2002, Storrud earned his Master Sergeant rank in Field Artillery on March 1. He also received the Order of St. Barbara on April 14. The Order of St. Barbara is a military honor society for both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps Artillery, including Field Artillery and Air Defense Artillery. The award is named for St. Barbara, the patron saint of artillerymen.
According to Storrud’s father, only one percent of all Marines rise to the rank of Master Gunnery Sergeant.
Storrud is stationed in Aurora, Colorado, at Camp Buckley. He is currently training Reserve Marines how to safely shoot the 155mm shells.
Storrud’s career included working as a Marine security guard for four years. He has helped provide security to embassies in Africa and South America according to his dad, Arnie. In addition, Zach helped provide security for President George W. Bush in Mexico.
He also provided security for Secretary of State and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the 66th United States Secretary of State, in South America.
Storrud served two tours of duty in Iraq, where he was an Infantry Platoon Sergeant. He also helped teach Iraqi’s troops on border security. Other areas he has served in  include Japan, Okinawa, Korea Jordon Kuwait, Quatar, Zambia, Singapore, Australia and many other areas.
Zach has served in the field artillery, been a combat marksmanship trainer and a battery gunnery sergeant, playing with the big shells –155mm artillery shells.
While serving as a gunnery sergeant, Storrud served on instruction and training duty.
As a Marine, Storrud also went Hollywood as a Marine corporal when he worked as as an extra in the movie “Windtalkers.” The movie was about the Navaho Marines and the use of the Navajo language in a code during World War II, which helped the United States earn the victory over the Japan as Japan couldn’t break the code.
The movie was filmed in 2000 and was filmed while Cpl. Storrud was stationed at Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii.
Storrud has a military background as his father served as a marine from 1968 to 1972. His older brother, Clay served in the U.S. Navy for four years. He now lives in West Valley City, Utah.