February 18, 2008

Friends of the Corps

            On Friday, June 13, 2008 the Corporal Jason David Mileo Detachment #1147 of the Marine Corps League (MCL) will host the 1st Annual Marines Helping Marines Charity Golf Tournament at the Queenstown Harbor Golf Links in Queenstown, MD. 

“There is no concept that distinguishes a United States Marine from all others than the tradition that Marines care for their own.  We carry from the field of battle our dead and wounded.  We leave no one behind.  Today the cause of assisting in the care of our most recently wounded men and women from the battlefields of the Middle East unites Marines of all ages. We are more than veterans; we are family.  Nothing more underscores this tradition than Marines Helping Marines.  It is after all, our enduring heritage...  it is after all what has sustained us for more than two centuries.”  PDC Gerard Devlin

The Marines Helping Marines, Wounded Marines Program was established in the spring of 2003 at the Bethesda Naval Hospital to provide extensive support for injured Marine Corps personnel and Navy FMF Corpsmen returning from the war on terror in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.  Since then the program has grown to include Balboa Naval Hospital, San Diego – Brooke Army Hospital, San Antonio – Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, DC, and the Wounded Warrior Regiment at both Camp Pendleton and Camp Lejeune.

What started as an effort to provide emotional support to these wounded Marines and Corpsmen quickly expanded into a need to provide material support in the form of additional health and comfort items.  The injured Marines arrive at the hospital with no more than the hospital gowns on their backs.  While the hospital provides the basic items, very often more is needed.  Currently, in addition to personal comfort items, the Marines Helping Marines program provides: financial assistance to the families who are visiting their Marines and Sailors (taxi vouchers, restaurant vouchers, phone cards and limited housing funding); outings for “outpatients” CD Players; CDs; DVD movies; television sets and DVD players for the rooms (due to a shortage of TV’s in the hospitals); and, airline tickets and travel money to wounded Marines for emergency leave.
 
On behalf of the Corporal Jason David Mileo Detachment Golf Tournament Committee, I urge you to join us in showing your support by participating in this important event.  The MCL is offering unique sponsoring opportunities including Titanium, Platinum, Gold and Hole level sponsors of the Golf Tournament and Donor level sponsors for product or service donations. To learn more about these Sponsorship packages, please contact Matt Maltby at 410-758-6756 or mmaltby@webowers.com or www.mcl1147.org. 

            I hope you will be able to join us in making this a truly outstanding event.

Sincerely,

James Spencer
Chairman
Corporal Jason David Mileo Detachment 1147
 MCL, Marines Helping Marines Charity Golf Tournament