September 15, 2014
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Sir Winston Churchill
The Veterans Landscape in the City of Dreams
September 12, 2014
Regan Turner
On the morning of September 11, 2001, 221 passengers and crew boarded airplanes bound for Los Angeles, unaware that in just a few short hours the world would change forever, and that they would never reach their final destination. At the time, I was a senior in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University, uncertain of the significance of the World Trade Center Towers or even where they stood.
Four years later, by then having gazed solemnly at the gaping hole at Ground Zero in New York City, I was tasked to lead Marines across the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan in pursuit of the terrorists behind the attacks of 9/11. A year after that, I sat and sipped chai tea with villagers in Iraq who tried to convince me that the United States had planned the 9/11 attacks as a motive to invade their country, while I silently prayed that my Marines and I would evade the next roadside bomb and make it home safely to ours. Luckily, we did.
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1st Platoon Los Angeles Builds a Community
August 2, 2014
“I know the kids are going to go crazy on Monday, the ones that are here are already smiling, that somebody says there are people who love you…It makes them feel good. We feel like that just because you’re in the inner center doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the best.”
The veterans of 1st Platoon Los Angeles recently deployed to Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center. The center provides a safe and nurturing environment where boys and girls ages 8 to 18 can participate in academic enrichment programs and recreational activities exploring a world of opportunities.
Moving Beyond the Battlefield
Zachary Bell
August 1, 2014
On February 12, 2007 I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, pledging to defend my country against all enemies foreign and domestic. I knew that my life would never be the same, but I still wanted to serve my country as so many great men and women had done before me. I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams where this would take me and what was yet to come.