PEOPLE IN CERTIFICATION
he United States Marine
Corp has a long and dis-
tinguished history since
its founding in 1775. Their battlefield
accomplishments are legendary, and
many a leatherneck has gone on to
later prominence in government,
business, sports, and entertainment.
“Semper Fidelis” is the Corp’s motto.
It means “Always Faithful,” and for
243 years, marines around the world
have honored that ethos.
Less well known is the Corp’s
slogan, “Improvise, Adapt, and Over-
come.” It’s basically “never give up.”
Even after leaving the service, ma-
rines improvise, adapt, and overcome
whatever their location, circumstance,
or age. One marine doing so is Joseph
J. Tokar, IT instructor for Beaufort
High School, in Beaufort, S.C.
In the Corp, Tokar’s military occu-
pation specialty was aircraft radarand communications systems. After
leaving the service, he enrolled in col-
lege and purchased an IBM 486sx33.
Within a couple of weeks, it stopped
working. Getting it going again re-
quired an eight-hour phone call with
the IBM help desk. It soon stopped
working a second time, necessitating
another marathon session with the
help desk.
The third time his computer
stopped working, Tokar had had
enough and decided to tackle the
problem on his own. “I bought and
read a copy of Repairing Computers for
Dummies and, before too long, the
486 was up and running,” he said. “I
was proud that I fixed it myself.”
Tokar continued to repair his com-
puter as needed and, as his skillsT
Former U.S. Marine used
can-do military energy
to succeed in computer
repair and teachingCalvin Harper is a for-
mer associate editor of
Certification Magazine,
and a veteran of the
publishing industry.BY
CALVIN HARPEREspr-IT
de Corps
The third time
his computer stopped
working, Tokar had had
enough and decided to
tackle the problem on
his own. ‘I bought and
read a copy of Repairing
Computers for Dum-
mies and, before too
long, the 486 was up
and running.’