(WACO, Texas) – Earlier this year, four students took a new step in their lives in Texas State Technical College’s Precision Machining program at the Waco campus.
The students quickly bonded over their shared background in the U.S. Marine Corps — including one reservist — and are setting the standard for younger students in the program. The group even works out together at the campus recreation center.
“They are a great bunch of students,” said Harry Leining, an instructor at TSTC’s Precision Machining program. “They are at the top of their class. They are also good with helping and assisting the younger students. It’s a unique bunch.”
The students are Damon Armstrong, who grew up in southwest Michigan; Richard Cambambia, of Waco; Byron McDonald III, of Corsicana; and Arthur Sutton, who grew up in Lubbock.
Armstrong had a little peer pressure in joining the military.
“My childhood best friend joined and convinced me to choose the Marines,” he said. “The appeal was the challenge.”
Armstrong was in the Marines for six years and stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California. He was a machine gunner during his first deployment and was part of a security platoon during his second and third deployments.
Armstrong is able to take the discipline he learned in the military and apply it to mastering new skills.
“There is definitely a learning curve to it, but the instructors are very knowledgeable and patient,” he said.
Armstrong said he sees 3D-printing and computer numerical control (CNC) machines as the future of manufacturing.
“I see a situation where older vehicles no longer being manufactured could be made functional again,” he said.
Cambambia is working toward an associate degree in the program. He has machining experience from his time in the Marines. He is currently a member of the Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 41 based at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth.
“My family motivates me to be the best I can be every day when it comes to class and drill,” Cambambia said. “So far, the (Precision Machining) program is at a nice pace when it comes to machining. I’m still learning new things about it.”
McDonald said he was driven to join the Marines after 9/11.
“It was a big eye opener to the world outside of our country,” he said. “I joined at 17 in the delayed enlistment and went to boot camp three days after graduating from high school.”
McDonald had an infantry contact and was stationed at the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in California. He had deployments to Afghanistan and to the South Pacific.
After the military, he got a job at a small machining shop and quickly discovered he enjoyed the work. He said he has learned a lot so far.
“I love the job and I want to be better at it,” McDonald said. “I wake up excited to come sling metal chips or get a new blueprint to read. It’s all fun to me. I can’t wait to get further in the program where I am learning to program and I am super excited to get on the big 5-axis (CNC) machine.”
McDonald’s dream job is to do machining work at Lockheed Martin.
“I think it would be really cool to make parts for F-35 jets,” he said.
Sutton decided to join the Marines because he did not want to go to college immediately after graduating from Monterey High School in Lubbock.
“I did precision machining while I was in high school because my dad recommended it as a trade due to it having good money and job security,” Sutton said.
He signed his service contract in July 2021 and was honorably discharged in July 2025. His job was in the 5811 Military Police, which took him to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, Japan.
“Most of my work was patrolling the base and whatever other tasks most civilians and first responders would have with reports and cases,” he said.
Sutton said he entered the Precision Machining program with little prior knowledge, but he said he has enjoyed what he has learned. After graduation, Sutton wants to move to Illinois to help support his girlfriend.
“She’s the number one reason I wake up and try my absolute best,” he said.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.