Now serving as commanding officer of Marine Corps Base Hawai’i after more than 24 years as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, Colonel Stephen E. DeTrinis ’97 has been named Jesuit’s Distinguished Military Alumnus. The recognition is part of a series of honors leading up to this year’s Jesuit-Holy Cross Rivalry Game, a tradition DeTrinis remembers well from his own days as a Blue Jay. From freshman athletics to varsity football, the rivalry offered some of his earliest lessons in competition, brotherhood, and what it meant to represent Jesuit.

“I am flattered,” DeTrinis said of the honor. “I remember attending activities as a student where alumni would return to provide comments about what Jesuit meant to them and to be honored. I do not feel like I am old enough to be in that position, but I guess since this is the class of 1997’s thirtieth reunion year, I am in the target category.”

For DeTrinis, the recognition provides an opportunity to reflect on a military career that has taken him around the world and on the Blue Jay formation that helped prepare him for it.

From Carrollton & Banks to the Marine Corps

DeTrinis arrived at Jesuit new not only to the school but also to New Orleans. He quickly became involved in life at Carrollton & Banks, competing in football, baseball, basketball, and track and field while also participating in Student Council and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Through athletics, faith, and student leadership, DeTrinis found opportunities to build friendships and become part of the Blue Jay community.

Athletics also provided one of his earliest introductions to a tradition he had yet to fully understand. Without the years of local playground and grammar school competition that many of his classmates shared, DeTrinis initially did not realize just how deeply rooted the Jesuit-Holy Cross rivalry was. It did not take long for him to learn.

“Jesuit-Holy Cross was always a great rivalry from freshman basketball, baseball, and football to the varsity football games I was able to participate in,” DeTrinis recalled. “There was always an added level of passion and energy surrounding the games.” DeTrinis made his own mark on the rivalry during his senior season. His fumble recovery at the Holy Cross 30-yard line set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Benton Marino, giving the Blue Jays a 28-0 advantage with 9:28 remaining in the third quarter.

An undefeated football season provided an early introduction to how much competition, school pride, and athletics meant at Jesuit. Those experiences became part of a larger formation that would continue well beyond Carrollton & Banks. DeTrinis went on to Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and competed as a member of the football team. In 2000, Delta State captured the NCAA Division II Football National Championship.

The championship was particularly meaningful for DeTrinis because he knew his playing career was nearing its conclusion and another calling was already taking shape. During his final two seasons of college football, he began working his way through the Marine Corps’ officer candidate programs, beginning a path that would lead to more than two decades of military service.

Called to Command

Following his graduation from Delta State University, DeTrinis received his commission in 2002 through the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Course, beginning a career that has steadily advanced through operational, planning, and command assignments. His operational roles have included platoon commander and company executive officer with 1st Battalion, 2d Marines; platoon commander with 2d Reconnaissance Battalion; team commander and company executive officer with 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion; operations officer with 2d Battalion, 2d Marines; and commanding officer of Marine Combat Training Battalion at the School of Infantry-East.

During his more than 24 years as a Marine officer, DeTrinis and his family have been stationed in North Carolina, Virginia, California, Okinawa, Rhode Island, and Hawai’i. He has deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, as well as with the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Africa and Black Sea Rotational Force. His assignments have also given him opportunities to work with foreign militaries throughout the Middle East, Europe, and Asia through exercises, military planning, and partnerships.

Beyond his operational commands, DeTrinis has served as officer in charge of Special Operations Training Company at Marine Special Operations School; a regional planner and plans officer with III Marine Expeditionary Force; a planner and strategist at United States Indo-Pacific Command; and director of G-35 for U.S. Marine Forces Pacific and Fleet Marine Force Pacific. These assignments placed him at both the operational and strategic levels of military leadership and planning.

DeTrinis continued his education throughout his Marine Corps career, graduating with distinction from both the resident and distance education programs of Command and Staff College. He is also a graduate of the School of Advanced Warfighting and the U.S. Naval War College’s Advanced Strategist Program. He earned master’s degrees in military studies and operational studies from Marine Corps University and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Naval War College. While at Command and Staff College, DeTrinis received the Colonel Franklin Brooke Nihart Award.

Today, as commanding officer of Marine Corps Base Hawai’i, DeTrinis continues a career centered on leadership and service. When considering what prepared him for those responsibilities, however, he looks back to a foundation established long before he wore a Marine Corps uniform.

“Jesuit provided the foundation for me to build upon, which led me to where I am today,” he said.

The Discipline of the Small Things

For DeTrinis, some of Jesuit’s most lasting lessons came through the school’s academic rigor. He credits his Blue Jay education with teaching him to think critically, work through difficult problems, resolve conflict, and approach challenges with discipline. Throughout his military career, he has seen the importance the armed forces place on developing leaders who can analyze information, organize ideas, make decisions, and solve complex problems. Those skills felt familiar.

“At Jesuit, we were immersed in these behaviors and taught these skills so effectively that it became innate in many of us,” DeTrinis said.

He recalls studying logic and philosophy and learning through methods that challenged students not simply to arrive at an answer, but to understand how and why they reached it. That foundation later gave him confidence to teach, coach, train, and mentor Marines, Sailors, joint partners, allies, and international partners. Another lasting lesson can be found in something much smaller: the familiar A.M.D.G. written atop schoolwork.

What once may have seemed like another classroom requirement eventually became an example of the relationship between faith, attention to detail, and discipline.

“More than just another small task requiring attention to detail, it helped me realize we are all asked to ‘know, love, and serve God,’” DeTrinis said. “To do that, we must glorify Him in all we do.”

For DeTrinis, the practice reinforced an idea that has followed him throughout his career. Doing small things well creates habits, habits develop discipline, and discipline prepares a person for the responsibilities and opportunities that follow. As he puts it, “You never have to get ready if you are ready.”

Faith, Family, and Being a Man for Others

Jesuit’s influence on DeTrinis extends well beyond academics and professional preparation. He credits his parents with first giving him the Catholic faith and Jesuit with helping him more fully understand his responsibility to live it. Looking back, he sees his years as a Blue Jay as preparation not only to become a Marine officer but also to become a husband, father, and Catholic leader.

“I did not realize it at the time, but Jesuit ignited in me the desire to be a faithful Catholic, to serve our Lord, be a husband and father who sets the example and is a ‘man for others,’ and to lead boldly,” he said.

DeTrinis and his wife, Margaret, have been married for nearly 23 years and have eight children, ranging in age from 19 to 2. Much of their time outside his military responsibilities is spent supporting their children in activities ranging from baseball to surfing and caring for Marines and their families. His commitment to service extends into parish life as well. DeTrinis is a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus and has served for the past three years as president of his parish advisory council.

As a father, he has developed an even greater appreciation for the example adults provide to young people, particularly the responsibility fathers have to demonstrate a strong and active Catholic faith within their families. His older children attend Damien Memorial School in Honolulu, named for St. Damien of Molokai. The school’s motto, Viriliter Age, meaning “act manfully” or “act courageously,” has become another reminder for DeTrinis of the formation he received at Jesuit and the call to be a man for others.

“Jesuit enhanced the faith my parents gifted me,” he said. “It prepared me to be a follower and practitioner of the Catholic faith.”

A Foundation That Endures

Nearly three decades after graduating, DeTrinis can trace much of the leader he has become to lessons learned as a Blue Jay. The classroom taught him to think critically, while athletics taught him competition, teamwork, and brotherhood. His teachers and mentors demonstrated the importance of investing in the formation of young men. Most importantly, his years at Carrollton & Banks strengthened his understanding that faith and service should shape what a person does with the opportunities he receives.

Those lessons have accompanied him from New Orleans to a national championship football team, through more than two decades of service in the Marine Corps, across deployments and assignments around the world, and ultimately to his current command in Hawai’i. “I am forever grateful for the manner in which Jesuit prepared me to take advantage of the opportunities I was presented,” DeTrinis said.

As Jesuit’s Distinguished Military Alumnus, DeTrinis represents the enduring reach of a Blue Jay formation and a call to serve his faith, family, Marines, and country while continuing to pursue the ideal first placed before him at Carrollton & Banks: to become a man for others.

DeTrinis will return to a rivalry that played an important role in his own years as a Blue Jay when he is honored at halftime of the Jesuit-Holy Cross Rivalry Game on Friday, October 2, 2026, at Tad Gormley Stadium.