Camp Schwab
At age 17, Hale dropped out of high school, left home, and 30 days later enlisted in the Marines. He was stationed at Camp Schwab, in Okinawa, Japan, in the Material Readiness Battalion of the 3rd Force Service Support Group, which supplied ammunition to most of the Pacific. After three years as an ammunition specialist, he was discharged in 1989. Hale would recall that he joined the military because he "wanted to see if he was a man".