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Terminal Lance is a comic strip and website created in 2010 by Maximilian Uriarte that satirizes United States Marine Corps life. Uriarte publishes the strip in the Marine Corps Times newspaper and on his own website, TerminalLance.com. The name is a slang term for a Marine who finishes an enlistment (i.e. terminates) as a lance corporal (E-3). The system for advancement, "cutting scores" which would lead to corporal, sergeant, and higher, is heavily dependent on career-field and seniority—this leads to a large number of "terminal lances" in infantry specialties who might, in another field, have advanced to NCO rank. According to Uriarte, he created the strip "to poke fun at the Marine Corps, much like Gunny Wolf in Charles F. Wolf Jr.'s old Sempertoons, but with an emphasis on the infantry Lance Corporal’s point of view."
He was born in Corvallis, Oregon, to American parents of Jewish and White Hispanic Mexican people descent. He spent most of his childhood in Corvallis before moving to Portland, Oregon at the age of 16. After graduating high school and taking two years of general education classes at Portland Community College, Uriarte enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at the age of 19 as an 0351 Assaultman. He served from 2006 to 2010, achieving the rank of Lance Corporal and fulfilling various roles, including SMAW Gunner, Team Leader, Squad Leader, MRAP Turret Gunner, Combat Photographer, and Combat artist. He served two tours in the Iraq War as part of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, the first in 2007-2008 (in the Al Zaidan region) and the second in 2009. He began writing and drawing Terminal Lance soon after returning. Ironically, Uriarte, who had spent most of his enlistment as a Lance Corporal found that he had been promoted to Corporal several months after his discharge. Uriarte made light of this, joking that the Marine Corps had "had the last laugh here, promoting the creator of Terminal Lance–of all people–I’m sure someone behind a desk had a laugh about it".
After ending his service in May 2010, Uriarte transferred his community college credits and (using the G.I. Bill) enrolled in the California College of the Arts, a top-ranked private art, design, architecture, and writing school in Oakland, California. He graduated in 2013, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a major in Animation. Currently he lives with his wife in Burbank, California, where he works as a writer and artist full time.
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