Collier Gregory: Afghanistan to Investments

After Collier Gregory fought the Taliban as a Marine in Afghanistan and then met the Queen of England, Pope Benedict XVI and Vladimir Putin at the White House, he decided to return to where he grew up’Pacific Palisades.   ’This is a great place to ‘start’ my life,’ said Gregory, 29, when he spoke at an Optimist Club meeting in May. Now living in Brentwood, he has worked as a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley since 2008 and is a partner on a private wealth management team there. Many locals remember Gregory as an Eagle Scout and an athlete (PPBA baseball and AYSO soccer) whose parents are Carl and Carol Gregory. He then went on to Villanova University, where he enrolled in ROTC. During his senior year, the terrorist attacks on September 11 led Gregory to make a decision about the next part of his life. Immediately after graduating in 2002, he entered the Marines and was sent to officer training school in Quantico, Virginia. ‘It was either really hot or cold, and there were mosquitoes,’ Gregory told Optimist Club members, describing Quantico as a place that God ‘forgot.’ ‘The training was what I expected, but it was difficult. Out of a class of 100, about half dropped out because they couldn’t make it.’ Gregory said the most common misconception people have about those who serve in the military is that they can’t afford college, are school dropouts or are rifle-toting rural Midwesterners. ‘I met people, like a New York investment banker, who left their jobs because they felt compelled to serve after what happened on 9/11,’ Gregory said. ‘These are people who genuinely care about this country, who could work anywhere, but choose to serve and in some cases pay the ultimate price.’ After training, instead of taking a ‘desk’ job, Gregory opted to join the infantry because ‘I knew they would put me on the front lines.’ He was required to take a combat endurance test and then a 10-week infantry officer course, which Gregory said ‘tested me in ways I didn’t think was possible.’ The intent is to prepare an officer to lead a platoon of Marines in combat. Gregory received his own 42-man platoon in 2003, but the Marines’ idea of front line and Gregory’s differed because his service began in Hawaii. After six months, his platoon was deployed to Southeast Asia to monitor the terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf for a year. Then after months of training in the mountains along the Nevada and California border, Gregory was sent to Afghanistan in March 2005, where he commanded a 140-man maneuver element that would perform over 100 intelligence gathering and security patrols along the Pakistani border. When Gregory arrived in camp, his first impression was that he had returned to Biblical times, in a land where ‘everyone was wearing sandals and robes.’ The contrast between people in the United States and those in tribal villages was striking. ‘There’s no hope for them to go to college, or to make a million dollars and then retire,’ he said, and he described the competition that exists between the villages as a ‘survival of the fittest.’ Gregory explained that it would be like people in Brentwood raiding homes in the Palisades because we had more food. There was no sense of national allegiance. About the land-locked countryside, he commented, ‘I don’t know why the Russians were trying to conquer this piece of ground. This is like another other place God forgot.’ The summer temperature was often 125 degrees, so most operations were carried out at night, while hiking through the hills wearing 70 pounds of gear. Adding to the difficulty, the Marines had to avoid using trails because ‘they were always mined.’ In addition to looking for Osama Bin Laden, another part of the Marines’ mission was nation building. Gregory noted that his men were tasked with doing this without being perceived as an occupying force like the Russians, who occupied Afghanistan from 1979-89, leading to the rise of the Taliban. ‘We received mixed reactions in villages,’ Gregory said. ‘We didn’t know if we’d be ambushed or if they would want to meet us.’ In villages not controlled by the Taliban, the U.S. military was welcomed and, with the help of U.S. engineers, helped build wells and schools. Although Gregory learned to speak rudimentary Pashto, he relied on his interpreter, ‘Mike,’ who was the same age as Gregory, spoke six languages and hated the Taliban. ‘He loved the idea that we were trying to do good and not trying to conquer.’   Gregory said that the most satisfying aspect of his service in Afghanistan was the September 2005 parliamentary and provincial council elections. ‘It was a big deal and we went to all the villages to let them know about it.’   Overall, Gregory felt that the Americans were doing a good thing. ‘We were giving people an opportunity because all of their freedoms had been stripped away,’ he said. ‘It makes me sad that six years later we’re still there and I’ve lost friends.’ He speculates that even though Bin Laden is now dead, Americans will remain in Afghanistan until that country’s military is strong enough to withstand Taliban terrorism.   Gregory wasn’t surprised that Bin Laden was found in Pakistan, rather than Afghanistan. ‘There was a $25-million reward for him in Afghanistan,’ he said. ‘If someone knew where he was, we would have heard.’   When Gregory left Afghanistan in February 2006, he had five months left to serve on his four-year commitment with the Marines. His superior suggested he apply for a position in Washington, D. C.   After going through security clearance, intensive screening and an interview, Gregory was chosen to serve as one of five military aides (one from each branch of service) to President Bush. When queried how he got the position over the thousands of Marines who applied, Gregory told the Optimists he wasn’t sure. ‘They wanted someone who was well-rounded, articulate, more than 6-ft. tall and it didn’t matter whether you were Democrat or Republican,’ he said.   After being chosen, Gregory was next to Bush during state dinners, bill signings, receptions and Congressional Medal of Honor ceremonies over a two-year period.   He met heads of state as well as other visitors to the White House. Gregory said that many of the leaders seemed to have the same quality: ‘They were humble, quiet, soft-spoken and had an air of quiet confidence.’   His favorite time in the White House was at Medal of Honor ceremonies. ‘The medal was given to relatives about 95 percent of the time, because the people being honored were dead. These people were heroes; they totally sacrificed, so someone else could live. The ceremonies were moving and to be a witness to it was awesome.’