Photo by Sam Yu Marine Maj. Joe Corbett is the top administrator at the Marine Corps Training Center on Rocky Springs Road in Frederick.

But behind the complex's gate, Maj. Joe Corbett leads a staff of a dozen active-duty Marines in operating the center and its $72 million in equipment to help train local Marine reservists, about 100 of whom recently deployed to Afghanistan.

Corbett, who grew up in Oklahoma, arrived at the Frederick training center in July 2007 after running the Marine Corps' LAV training center in Camp Pendleton, Calif., for three years.

"One of the bigger challenges I had here is Fort Detrick is not a combat arms base, it's medical logistics, medical command," said Corbett, 44. "And it's not really set up to help us shoot 25 mm rounds that can go a couple miles, they don't like that in Area B."

Area B is Fort Detrick's sprawling secondary location next to the Marine center.

Corbett said Fort Detrick's Army garrison commander, Col. Judith Robinson, has been accommodating of the Marines' needs. Corbett and his staff prepare the center for the reservists' weekend training, order ammunition and other supplies, repair the vehicles and weapons that inevitably break during training, and take care of administrative business.

"Reservists come in for a drill weekend, but for that weekend there's three weeks, four weeks of planning on the front side to make sure equipment is ready," he said.

As if that didn't keep the staff of active-duty Marines busy enough, they are also responsible for casualty assistance calls when a Marine in the mid-Atlantic area dies while serving, and performing funeral honors for active-duty and veteran Marines. The office averages three to five funerals a month, typically for Korea and Vietnam-era veterans.

Part of what helps Corbett run the center is 1st Sgt. Mike Mains.

"He's the backbone of this unit and honestly one of the reasons we are successful," Corbett said. "He's a miracle worker."

Another factor is Corbett's drive; he decided as a child that he wanted to be a Marine.

"The silent drill team was at the Air Force base where I was living," said Corbett, whose father served in the Air Force. "I was only 4 years old, but I asked, 'Who are those guys?' and he said, 'Those are the Marines.' I said, 'What do they do?' and he said, 'They kill everything' or something like that. And I didn't know how to comprehend that at that age, but I knew throughout my life that if I joined the military I wanted to join the Marine Corps."

Corbett worked in oil fields after high school, but he grew tired of it and decided he was finally serious about joining the Marines. His father talked him into giving college a try, and Corbett wound up graduating from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in communications and a spot in Marine officer training school. He was commissioned on Dec. 7, 1990, by now-Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat from Virginia who was then secretary of the Navy.

Corbett hasn't looked back since and said he has no regrets even though his job took him in a different direction than he thought it would.

"I wasn't excited to come here and train reserves," he said. His friend was deploying to Iraq, and Corbett wanted to become a battalion executive officer to deploy alongside him.

Instead, he ended up in Frederick .

"It's like being Kevin Costner's character in 'Dances With Wolves,'" he said. "My boss, my next higher headquarters, is 2,500 miles away in San Diego. So I can't go 'Hey, can I do this? Can I do that?' I have to make a lot of decisions on my own out here that typically a major's not going to be making."

Corbett, who lives in Frederick with his 17-year-old son, Matt, will continue running the training center until next October, when he plans to retire.