Richmond, IN Marine Dies in Afgahnistan

A 22-year-old Marine from Richmond was among four from a unit based at Twentynine Palms who died Saturday in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan.

Lcpl. Layton Bradly Crass, 22, a 2005 Richmond High School graduate, died Saturday, Sgt. Brad Covert confirmed today. Sgt. Covert is Family Readiness Officer for the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment.

Services are pending at Doan & Mills Funeral home in Richmond. Tentatively the services will be held at Richmond High School 380 Hub Etchison Pky. Richmond IN. Marines lets get to Richmond to support this family. The Indiana Patriot Guard has also been requested to participate by the family.

Additional information will be posted as it is known.

Operation Care Package 24/7

For those of you who want to send care packages & have good intentions, but time slips away. Marine Sgt. Klay South has established OPERATION CARE PACKAGE 24/7 http://www,ocp247.com which is a web based commerce site to ship packages from. Many changes have been implemented to make the process quick and easy…a first time user should be able to spend less than 5 minutes from logging on the site to end of purchase. If you know the service member you are shipping to click I KNOW MY HERO and follow the prompts. Before checking out, you will be required to register as a user. If you have any problems, or would like a process changed, please email OCP247 and put your comments…the goal is to make it very easy!

This is a great way to send care packages because OCP247 is the primary corporate sponsor for VETERANS OF VALOR http://www.veteransofvalor.org (not for profit 501 3 C) which provides backpacks with and IPOD and/or PSP, break away clothing for wounds, athletic wear, Bible, etc. for combat wounded who have six months or more of recovery. Group trips to Dave & Busters for meals and games are a favorite. Transportation is provided as well.

It is a win-win. Each dollar does double duty as it supports our troops with great stuff…it also helps those who are wounded. This is the ONLY care package site established and operated by a wounded vet.

Family to Receive K-9 of Fallen Marine

December 13th, Fox news reported that the family of Marine Corporal Dustin J. Lee will receive his K-9 partner on December 21, 2007. Corporal Lee was killed defending our freedom on March 21, 2007 in Fallujah Iraq and his K-9 partner was wounded.

The family of the 20-year-old Marine finally won their petition to receive his dog Lex from the Marine Corps. The injuries Lex sustained were not life-threatening and he was returned to active duty. I am glad the Marine Corps came to an agreement with this family who have sacrificed so much. Hopefully Lex lives a long life and provides some comfort to the family of a fallen Marine.

Marine Corporal Dustin J. Lee (http://www.remembercpldustinlee.blogspot.com/)

Job Well Done Santa Kabat and Marine Families!!

Marine Families that take Supporting our Marines seriously and I want to highlight www.USMCFamilies.com and the USMC Families in central Indiana for a Job Well done! I urge you to check out their website to see their projects. Especially the Santa Kabat story at http://www.usmcfamilies.com/kabat.htm

Taking Care of Our Own

To enlarge, please Click on the form. A box with arrows will appear, click on that too, keep clicking until form is large enough to read.

LCpl Joshua Bleill - Wounded in Iraq

Marine LCpl Joshua Bleill (Greenfield, IN) was severely wounded in Iraq earlier this month, double amputee. His family is keeping a blog to update his status and give other information (http://joshbleill.blogspot.com/).

Prayers are always in need as well as DVDs, magazines, letters, get well cards, etc. The below address can be used for items sent in the next two weeks. Beyond that, they will provide the new address at Josh's rehab facility on the blog.

National Naval Medical Center
Attn: Marine Corps Liaison Office Building #10
LCPL Joshua Bleill
8901 Wisconsin Ave.
Bethesda, MD 20889

A Marine Needs Our Prayers - Pass The Word!

Young Marine faces toughest fight of all
10:15 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 11, 2006
By Shern-Min Chow / 11 News KHOU-TV (Houston, TX)
A Conroe, TX teenager dreamed of becoming a Marine and serving his country.

Private First Class Kris Taylor faces a battle for his life. He was living that dream when doctors uncovered a serious problem. Now the young Marine is facing a new fight. Private First Class Kris Taylor at 18 is already a combat veteran. His enemy? An aggressive and now inoperable brain cancer. “Every day is the prayer that this is the stuff that is going to stop it,” his mother said. He is at M.D. Anderson for another round of chemotherapy. Doctors are using an experimental treatment which may prolong his young life.
“Ever since I could almost pronounce the word I’ve wanted to be a Marine,” said Taylor.

For more information see: http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou060711_cd_marine10.34c6bae.html

Marines Helping Marines

The Marine Foundation of Central Indiana is a non-profit organization that seeks to enhance the lives and provide support for Marines and their Family Members. The foundation will raise community awareness and efforts to provide financial assistance and moral support at home, during activation and/or deployments of Marines. The foundation will work with other veteran and non-profit organizations to support the Marine Family.

For more information and or to make a donation see: www.SemperFiIndy.org

LCpl Tyler Jackson Legal Fight -Help one of the Haditha 8

Our son, Tyler, is one of the Few, the Proud, one of the U.S. Marines being held in the Camp Pendleton brig, charged during an investigation into an alleged April 26th event. He is “one of the good guys” and has never been in any trouble. He joined the Marines in March of 2005 without any delusions about what the job would require of him or the sacrifices he would have to make, and willingly continues to make. He did it proudly and voluntarily, in hopes of making a difference, and to defend his country, his fellow Marines, and his family. He deployed to Iraq in January and has served his country honorably.He has been shot at, IED’ed, and has put his life on the line, asking nothing in return. We are more proud of him than I could begin to tell you. We love him and stand beside him and behind him one hundred percent. He is innocent of any wrong doing, yet sits in the brig since May 24th in solitary confinement, handcuffed, chained and shackled. We just learned on June 15, 2006 that his status has been changed from Maximum Security to Medium Security. He now can move out of his cell for an hour a day and for visits on weekends. A step in the right direction, small though it may be, in the whole scheme of things. Not exactly the hero’s homecoming that he deserves.

For more details on how you can help see: http://www.fightingfortyler.com/

A Marine Mom's Request

Peggy Getty received this note from a Marine Mom she knows and is sharing it with her permission in order to spread this request far and wide.

All:

Jerry, Brenda and I went back again to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio yesterday.(we have been going there once a month since December) to visit our severley injured military (these are the severely burned and amputees.) There is a new arrival (arrived March 13) named Sgt. John Phillips. John is from South Carolina. He was burned over 77% of his body and will probably lose his feet because the tendons are dead. He is in ICU so we, of course, were not allowed in his room. We did however meet his parents, Allen and Cookie Phillips. When we gave Allen and Cookie the cards, posters, goodies, etc. from church groups, school children, us, and others, the Mom started crying and just kept saying "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" When I asked Cookie if there was absolutely anything else that we could do for John, she said, "Yes, just please please ask everyone to pray for John, and cards, letters, posters, etc. like these you brought today do wonders for boosting John's spirits!"

So, I am asking each of you to please pray for John and put him in any prayer chains you know of anywhere! Also, if you would like to send a card, letter, etc. to him, here is his address:

Sgt. John Phillips
c/o GySgt. Ronald Morris, PAT Team
Brooke Army Medical Center
3851 Roger Brooke Drive, Bldg. 3600
Ft. Sam Houston, TX 78234-6200

A Mother's Tribute to Fallen Marine Heros

Karla Comfort received a lot of looks and even some salutes from people when she drove from Benton, Ark., to Camp Pendleton, Calif., in her newly-painted, custom Hummer H3 March 2. The vehicle is adorned with the likeness of! her son, 20-year-old Lance Cpl. John M. Holmason, and nine other Marines with F Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division who where all killed by the same improvised explosive device blast in Fallujah, Iraq, in December.

For Karla Comfort, having the vehicle air brushed with the image of the 10 Marines was a way to pay homage to her hero and his fellow comrades who fell on Iraq's urban battlefield.

"I wanted to let people know (Marines) are doing their jobs honorably, and some of them die," said the 39-year-old from Portland, OR "I don't want people to forget the sacrifices that my son and the other Marines made."

Leading up to her son's death, Karla Comfort had received several letters from him prior to his return. He had been deployed for five months, and Comfort "worried everyday he was gone until she got the letters and found out the date he was coming home," she said.

Marines knocked on the front door of her home in Farmington, Mich., at 3 a.m. with the dreadful news.

"I let my guard down when I found out he was coming home," she said. "There are times that I still cannot believe it happened. It's very hard to deal with."

Karla Comfort came up with the idea for the rolling memorial when she and her two other sons attended John's funeral in Portland, Ore.

Nam Buddies found 38 years Later!!

Dwight Saylor and Scott Caldwell shown in this picture (Scott seated left and Dwitght seated right) have been reunited with other Marines from 2nd Bn/26th Marines BLT H&S Comm Plt! On April 5th a phone call reunited Dwight and Skip Rankin also of 2/26. Skip had found Russ Eaglin and others over 5 years ago and now has been successful in finding 2 more Marines that served together in Nam in '68-'69. Both Dwight and Scott worked in the Tech Shop with Russ. There are more out there and we will continue to search for them. Getting back together after all this time is very special. WOW! What a day!!

Marines "Taking Care of Our Own"

The Marine Foundation of Central Indiana is established to promote the interests of the United States Marine Corps by:

• 
  Supporting Marines and their families that are in need! The Marine Family is defined as the community of Marine Corps units, both active and reserve, as well as Marine Veterans groups and associations presented as a whole to present the interest of the Marine Corps.
  
• Carrying out the dictum of “taking care of our own” by coordinating support for the Marine Corps Community in the Central Indiana area to include the Marines and Marine Families, families of deployed Marines, Marine widows/widowers and orphans, and disabled or needy former Marines.
  
• Engaging in and promoting social and civic endeavors, singly or in association with other groups, which will effectively enhance the public image, standing, interests and proud traditions of the United States Marine Corps in the Central Indiana area and elsewhere.
  
• Educatiing the general public about the needs of the Marines in the State of Indiana.

For more information go to: www.SemperFiIndy.org