In the United States, Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, picnics, concerts, baseball games, political speeches and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States.
On July 4th 2011, 235 years of American pride showed today as 48 members of the Temecula Valley Young Marines marched down old town Temecula with a flag loaned to the unit for this event by Sergeant Major Bryan Vaughn (USMC Ret.). CO Guiles, YM/Sgt. Major Guiles and YM/ Master Gunnery Sergeant Guiles. carried the flag over to the Young Marines and they all unfurled it together. CO Guiles had the Young Marines stretch the flag out as far as they could and then ensured the stars were in the upper left hand corner of the reviewing stand 
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, . The flag was placed carefully back into the CO's vehicle, there was some word passed by CO Guiles that did not make too many people happy (but we will talk about that later), The Young Marines marched with their flag on their shoulders to their starting point #27, The Young Marines waited for about an hour and then parade took off. As the Young Marines rounded the corner in the stamped parking lot, the CO gave the order to unfurl the flag. The Young Marines hoisted the 60’ x 40’ Garrison Flag as high as they could get to keep it off of the ground and proudly marched it down Old Town Temecula 
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. Every time the Young Marines would move the crowd would go crazy stand up and yell!! There were a lot of Semper Fi's and Ooh-Rah's! and for everyone that gave the Young Marines a Marine corp hello the Young Marines responded with a loud Ooh-Rah!! As the Young Marines neared the reviewing stand the Young Marines near to the judges took a knee and the other side raised the flag higher 
. The Crowd went crazy some yelling thank you and god bless America. As the Young Marines made their way down Old town a photographer from the California newspaper took a knee and snapped a lot of pictures as the flag passed over his head. Another reporter was high atop a building snapping another shot of the Young Marines and yet another reporter from the Temecula Valley News got a great shot of our Young Marines as they carried the flag through the city. As the Young Marines rounded the final corner the crowd was cheering and yelling for the Young Marines Semper Fi' Thank you' and Ooh-Rah!!. As the Unit arrived at a city park the CO gave the order to roll the flag up again for
. The CO had all of the Young Marines get back into formation and he thanked them all for a job well done. The CO gave the word and the Young Marines walked the flag back to their starting point and preceded to fold up the flag. What a patriotic day and a great parade thank you to everyone that helped out and thank you to Sgt. Major Vaughn for letting us use your retirement flag.
OOH-RAH!!!! Young Marines and Semper Fi !! America!!!
Note: The following day the Temecula Valley Young Marines were posted in the Press Enterprise and front page of the valley News 
as 1st place marchers in the parade for the 4th year in a row pictures can also be seen on the units photo page great pictures by Mr. Colvin.
