Cpl. Andrew Hundley never expected fame, but after becoming a Marine Corps sensation overnight, he wields it with humility and gratitude.
In mid-April, Hundley’s staff noncommissioned officer attempted to route a military certificate he completed up the chain so he could get a spot in a Marine Corps program designed to give up-and-coming leaders the skills to take on greater roles within the service.
But the email got sent forcewide, setting off a chain of hundreds of responses from Marines across the fleet and lighting social media ablaze with memes and fraternal adulation only members of the amphibious service can dish out.
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On Thursday, Hundley, 24 years old and a cyberspace warfare operator from Colorado, graduated from that program, known as the Corporals Course, and the top enlisted leader of the Marine Corps, Sgt. Maj. Carlos Ruiz, made a surprise appearance to help herald his and the other junior leaders’ accomplishment.
“The Marine Corps gods have called upon me,” Ruiz said at the graduation to cheers, laughs and whoops across the room for Hundley. “They were setting up a schedule, and the schedule somehow ended up with — where you at, Hundley? Raise your hand …”
“An unintentional, so-innocent email that went to everyone,” he said at Camp Johnson, North Carolina, where the event was held.
In an interview with Military.com on Thursday, Hundley said that he was “ecstatic” to have the top enlisted Marine attend his graduation. He was quick to say that his staff sergeant was doing her due diligence in trying to get him into the course, but a glitch with the distro list led him out of the unknown and into the annals of Marine Corps lore.
“I was worried more than anything that I would get in trouble or I was worried something bad was going to happen,” he said. In the immediate aftermath, he said his leadership checked in on him, and then together they eventually leaned into the joke.
“They took off with it and were super supportive about it,” he said. “They didn’t start making jokes or anything, they called me to ask if I was OK and they wanted to make sure I was doing OK.”
Soon, Hundley started getting requests to sign his certificate. The Marine Corps’ official Instagram page got in on the joke in a post, declaring “take me off this distro” in the caption. Marines and veterans took to social media with memes, but ones that were wrapped in the congratulatory ribbing common to the Corps.
“At least of my experience with the Marine Corps, we know when to be serious and that we know sometimes when it’s a good time to not be serious,” Hundley said. “It’s a big community out there; everyone I’ve come across has been really motivational to talk to about [it], and I think it’s a great way that we develop this because it’s like friends and brother and sibling, how you have that humor with each other.”
After Ruiz posted to social media a video of his attendance at the Corporals Course graduation, Hundley said he started getting messages of support and congratulations from across the country, from Marines and veterans, too.
He had heard rumors that Ruiz would be attending, but knew he had “so much stuff on his plate” that he wasn’t certain. But he ended up being “completely amazed” — and a little nervous — that Ruiz attended and appreciated that he was there to celebrate with them.
“To me, supporting our Marines in their endeavor to become [professional military education] complete was the win,” Ruiz told Military.com through a spokesperson Thursday, referring to courses Marines take throughout their careers as they advance through the ranks. “We are Marines, and being a Marine can be difficult. As leaders, if we can take an opportunity like this and turn it into something positive that raises morale, then we should do it.”
Ruiz said that he too received the email chain and had “a good laugh” about a Change.org petition that received more than a thousand signatures to get the commandant of the Marine Corps to come to the graduation ceremony.
Hundley said one his favorite replies to the email chain went something like, “I don’t even breathe 8th comm air, why am I seeing this” in a request to get off of the distro list, referring to the 8th Communication Battalion at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where Hundley serves as a mission element leader in his platoon.
He joined the Marine Corps in 2021, initially wanting to be a pilot in the Air Force. But a Marine Corps recruiter told him about opportunities in cyber after learning that Hundley enjoys building out computers as a hobby.
Having worked with animals growing up, he said he intends to start volunteering at an animal shelter in North Carolina as part of his next steps and is looking forward to finishing his five-year contract in the Marine Corps, wanting to “give back … as much as I can” in that time period, before looking at other cyber opportunities in the government or private sector.
“I didn’t want this kind of thing to take away from the experience of all the other corporals that were going in that course with me, because they worked so hard,” Hundley said. “They were amazing people, every one of them in their own different ways. And they were so inspirational. They deserved more fame than I ever got from it, even just that little bit.”
He was promoted to corporal last year and has thought a lot about the leader he is and wants to continue to be. Of the email saga, he said that he learned it’s OK to not be “super serious all the time” and that part of being human is to “sit back and laugh” about the absurdities of life.
“There’s a lot of things I don’t know, and I want to inspire growth in all of my Marines that I’m leading,” he said. “I want them to know that they’re amazing in their own ways, and that they have valued input and ideas. I want to inspire them to grow as their own human beings and leaders.”
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