Temecula Valley Young Marines send DVDs & CDs to the Troops

It has taken our unit over 6 months pursuing a way to send our collected DVDs and CDs to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Well this was not an ordinary mission and it seemed impossible. The unit had just collected 10,000 books to send to the troops and that was the priority mission from the CO. One of the units parents Sgt. Major Bryan Vaughn hooked the unit up with a C-130 squadron to fly the books (Dubbed Operation Pages) to the troops in early February of 2007. With that mission out of the way CO Guiles started calling several Military installations to ship the DVDs, all of which had the same reply. “Sorry sir but we have no scheduled flights going to that area of Operations you might want to try the Marine Corps or Navy”. The CO Contacted the Navy but we were bumped off of the flights too many times. The CO and the Staff tried harder to secure a flight. The CO handed the mission to the Logistics Officer Mrs. Aguilar and the CO pursued other missions for the unit to tackle. Mrs. Aguilar talked to a friend of the hers and the CO’s. During the conversation of trying to move the DVDs and CDs to the troops their friend said "just give them to me we have planes leaving every so often". The CO and Mrs. Aguilar setup the times with their friend and said when you have a date to please let us know.

With the DVDs and CDs on hold until a plane was ready CO Guiles accepted another mission from Operation DVD. This mission was to send 75 empty DVD boxes to the Young Marines at Camp Foster in Okinawa. No problem the unit’s friend said and away the boxes went an impossible task some had said but the unit prevailed. Finally a plane was ready with less than 48 hours of notice the unit assembled a cadre of seven Young Marines to escort and pack the DVDs and CDs into four Operation DVD boxes. The unit had help packing the DVDs and CDs, from employees of Lockheed Martin's MS 12 facility in San Diego , , , ,. Lockheed Martin is also collecting DVDs with the Temecula Valley Young Marines along with the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) and Sandbox an LA based band. On Friday June 15, 2007 the Temecula Valley Young Marines successfully sent to the troops in Iraq: 800 DVDs, 550 CDs, 4 DVD players, 14 copies of the Esprit magazine, and two Temecula Valley Young Marine Flags , , . The Young Marines were interviewed by the bas PAO. Before the unit left they got to load a few of the boxes into a C-130 for a base photo Op , , . And before we left the airstation we had a unit picture taken with the Marines and the DVD boxes . On the ride home the CO asked how the Young Marines felt “they all said they felt good and they hoped that the troops will enjoy the DVDs and CDs”. A great accomplishment for the unit, the Young Marine Organization, AMVETS & Operation DVD. Ooh-Rah and outstanding work Young Marines.

"Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air".

John Quincy Adams (1767 - 1848)