On October 23rd 2007, CO Guiles received a phone call from the American Red Cross’ Temecula Chapter. The Red Cross asked for the assistance of the Temecula Valley Young Marines to help with the influx of evacuated citizens for the recent San Diego area firestorms. CO Guiles quickly mobilized his staff and a small cadre of Young Marines and parent volunteers. Everyone met at the unit’s training area and loaded their vehicles with 80 Cots, 80 wool blankets and 600 bottles of ice tea
. The unit was initially supposed to go to Temecula’s Chaparral High School but were redirected to Vista Murrieta High School as the Temecula’s schools were overflowing with displaced citizens. The unit arrived at the High School and quickly unloaded their vehicles with the help of the Local Fire Department and a few volunteers
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. The CO asked if anyone new how to set up the cots, when no one directly answered the CO order his Young Marines and staff to start assembling the cots in single file lines and the other volunteers began to help
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. Once the cots were setup and the Logistics Officer set the blankets on the cots with PV’s Mr. and Mrs. Hedlund. The units Training Officer LTJG Boudreau and PV Mr. Masters started taping up the bottoms of the cots with cardboard and Duct tape ,
. The CO and the adjutant were cutting up the card board for LTJG Boudreau
while YM/1stSgt Aguilar and YM/GySgt. Guiles went around inspecting cots and duct taping up any small holes or tears . The other Young Marines were busy spacing the cots and moving them into an organized fashion
. It took the small cadre of Young Marines and their staff 2 ½ hours to finish this task. But it was done quickly and with lots of good organization.
When it was all over the unit was thanked and fed dinner for the appreciation of the Red Cross and the City of Murrieta. The CO was also asked if the unit could stay on alert status for the remainder of this crisis if the cities of Temecula and Murrieta or the Red Cross needed their assistance. The CO said of course we would be most happy to help anyway we can
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. Operation Provide Comfort was officially started 1357 when the Mayor of Temecula emailed CO Guiles that he would be receiving a call form City Hall for support. Although the unit operated in the City of Murrieta the unit has been adopted by both cities and continues to provide support for both sometimes at the same time. Outstanding job Young Marines and Parent Volunteers this is why the Young Marine organization is the number one Youth organization in the country.