First Sergeant (1stSgt) Santiago is a native of Bronx, New York and enlisted in the Marine Corps August 16th 2001. in Brooklyn, NY. He attended Marine Corps Recruit training on July 9th 2002 at Parris Island South Carolina. Following recruit training 1stSgt Santiago attended and graduated from the School of Infantry-East in Camp Lejeune, NC. He earned the military occupation specialty (MOS) of 0311 Infantryman. Following graduation, 1stSgt Santiago received orders to 3rd Battalion 3rd Marine 3rd Marine Division.
In February 2003 1stSgt Santiago checked in and reported to Lima Company 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines. Immediately within three months 1stSgt Santiago deployed to Camp Hansen Okinawa in support of 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (M.E.U) deployment. During this deployment he was certified non-lethal training and was conditioned to Oleoresin Capsicum (O.C) level 1 spray. His company was selected as track company and conducted non-combatant evacuation operations (N.E.O) in the Philippines making the 31st M.E.U Special Operation Capable (31st M.E.U. S.O.C) 1stSgt Santiago ended the deployment with bilateral training with the East Timor Army and conducted Helo born operations. 1stSgt Santiago returned from Deployment in January 2004.
From January 2004 to November 2004 1st Santiago deployed to Thailand and supported Operation Cobra Gold ’04 with bilateral training with the Thai Marines and learned jungle survival warfare training. In July 2004 Lima Co. was selected to support Rim of the Pacific exercise where they once was selected to be track company and sailed the Pacific Ocean for 3 weeks. During this exercise the battalion received orders that they would not be going back on a Unit Deployment Program (UDP) instead the would deploying to Afghanistan and would be conducting a relief in place with 3rd Battalion 6th Marines in November. The battalion had four months to prepare for combat and be ready to deploy by November 8th 2004.
From November 2004 to July 2005 1st Sgt Santiago was on his first combat tour as a 249 Squad Automatic Machine gunner and conducted patrols in the Kunar Province. During this deployment he was involved in Operation SPURS which was an aerial insertion operation that combined Naval Special Operation Forces and Delta soldiers from 3rd Special Forces Group. Operation MAVERICKS was the next battalion scale 1st Sgt Santiago was involved with that produced 90 anti-personnel mines, I.E.D making material and six prisoner of wars and 48 hours of MEDCAP Operations. Operations CELTICS would be the last Company size operations before doing a relief in place with his sister battalion 2nd Battalion 3rd Marines. During Operation CELTICS Lima Co. would conduct vehicle check point clearance along side the tora bora region. 1stSgt Santiago would have departed the Tactical Area of Operations (TAOR) if it wasn’t for the incident that took place in June 2005, Operation Red Wing. 1stSgt Santiago and his battaliion was on stand by for any support needed. Eventually 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines got the green light to leave the TAOR on 23 June 2005. 1stSgt Santiago returned to base August 2005. They honored the 2 Marine Killed in Action during that deployment.
From March 2006 to October 2006 1st Sgt Santiago deployed for a third time on his second combat tour to Al-Anbar province in Iraq. During this deployment 1st Sgt Santiago company relief in place with 3rd Battalion 1st Marines in the TAOR of Haditha. 1stSgt Santiago and is company took the responsibility of combat outpost (COP) Barwanna. During this deployment 1st Santiago found himself in a very kinetic environment where every other day was an I.E.D attack, sniper fire, ambush or incoming direct fire (IDF). During this deployment 1st Santiago company conducted small counter insurgency operations (COIN) on a daily basis to stop the enemy from executing IDF attacks as well as complex ambushes within the AOR. In June 2006 1stSgt Santiago and his company was the outside cordon in an attempt to stop Abu Musab Zarqawi an Al-Qaeda cell organizer from fleeing the country. Al- Zarqawi was cornered in TAOR of Haditha and was killed with a 500 lb Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb. During this deployment the Battalion suffered 14 Killed in Action with Lima Co. suffering 2 Marines Killed in Action and 6 Marine wounded in action. 1st Sgt Santiago returned home October 2006.
From October 2006 to February 2008 1st Santiago permanently changed assignments to 2nd Battalion 3rd Marines and found himself on a 4th deployment to Karma, Iraq in Al-Anbar province.During this deployment he found himself as a Vehicle commander conducting convoy operations throughout OutPost Delta, Karma and Fallujah. His deployment was significantly quiet until Jun 2008 when a suicide bomber dressed up as an Iraqi Police officer and Killed his battalion commander, a company commander and severely wounded his battalion SgtMaj. The deployment ended in August 2008 and 1stSgt Santiago returned home to Marine Corps Base Hawaii to conduct another memorial service for his fellow Hawaii Marines.
From September 2008 until July 2010 1stSgt Santiago Permanently Changed Assignemts to Marine Forces Pacific and was put in the G-3 as an operations clerk. During this time he deployed to Seoul South Korea in support of Operation Key Resolve. 1stSgt Santiago left active duty July 2010 and was honorably discharged.
1stSgt Santiago returned to active duty on mobilization orders with Marine Forces Pacific as the Reserve Integration Chief from Nov 2010 to September 2013. Throughout this time he supported Operation Tomadachi, humanitarian aid relief for Japan, certified in Marine Corps Martial Arts Program Instructor and was an operations chief in Mujuk, South Korea for Operation Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG’13). He went back to the Individual Marine Augmentation (IMA) detachment in October 2013 until July 2014.
From July 2014 until January 2016 1stSgt Santiago checked in 2nd Battalion 24th Marine Gulf Co. in Madison, WI. Here he was a platoon sergeant and executed Marine readiness exercises throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. He attended career course in Quantico, Virgina then dropped to the IRR in January 2016.
1stSgt Santiago rejoined the IMA Det in October 2016 and held the title of Operations Assistant Chief. He supported exercise Pacific Rim’16 and executed mobilization orders to Kuwait in 2017. During his deployment to Kuwait from Dec 2017 to May 2018 1stSgt Santiago was the sustainment chief and executed logistical needs for the 10 Marine element in Camp Arifjan. After returning from deployment 1stSgt Santiago supported Operation Talisman Saber 2019 in Australia and ended his IMA Det tour in September 2020.
1stSgt Santiago dropped into the IRR from October 2020 until June 2021. During this time he was a contractor in Kandahar, Afghanistan and supervised a security team on the airfield until the transfer of authority took place from the Afghan national army into the hands of the Taliban. 1stSgt Santiago left Afghanistan in May 2021.
From November 2021 to May 2023 1stSgt Santiago spent seven months with Charlie Co. 1st Battalion 23rd Marines and eleven months with Alpha Co. 1st Battalion 23rd Marines. During this tour 1stSgt Santiago was Weapons platoon sergeant, acting 1stSgt and Company Gunnery Sergeant during Marine Readiness Exercise MRX-2, and graduated from Fire Support Coordinator Course and Watch Chief, Watch Officer course in Camp Pendleton California.
May 2023, he was frocked to First Sergeant and transferred to H&S Company 4th Light Armor Reconnaissance Battalion on Camp Pendleton California where he serves as the Company 1stSgt.
1stSgt Santiago personnel awards are the Purple Heart, Combat Action ribbon with gold star in lieu of 2nd award and various campaign and personnel awards.