Aspiring Marine loses 117 pounds to join armed service

A young man from Yuma lost nearly 117 pounds over the past three years to help his chances of getting into the military. Now, he is stationed in South Carolina serving in the Marine Corps.

Neftali Camacho was born and raised in Yuma. While attending Cibola H igh S chool, he wanted to join the Marine Corps but knew he would need to make some serious life changes.

“Growing up in Yuma, you got Marine Corps Air Station Yuma…I would always drive by and look at them and be like that seems like a good idea. The Marine Corps, but looks kind of hard,” Camacho said.

Heading into his sophomore year, he wanted to lose weight to help his chances of making it in the military.

His first day going to the gym during his sophomore year, he weighed nearly 305 pounds. One year later he went into his junior year weighing 205 pounds, having lost 100 pounds.

“At that point, I needed to figure out what I was going to do before I graduated so I went into the recruiting office and they said you’re 50 pounds overweight. I said give me six months,” he said.

Through perseverance and determination , he was able to get under 205 pounds within five months. He would enlist in the Marine Corps following graduation in July of 2017.

“One of the main reasons I tell everyone I did it is because I wanted to motivate my family and everyone back home to do something, ya know?” Camacho said.

In total, he lost about 117 pounds, setting new goals to accomplish.

“My goals for next year are to run a half marathon at the beginning of the year and I’ll be trying to run the Marine Corps marathon in October of next year,” he said.