MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- The Marine Corps famously takes care of its own, and during the holidays, the Corps also has a lot of civilian help to make sure no service member is forgotten. From Marine Corps Community Services to off-base high school students, to a tree farmer in Amissville, Va., it’s a diverse team that has been working to bring holiday cheer to Quantico’s Marines.
About 120 Marine families received food vouchers for Thanksgiving this year, and more than 140 will get vouchers for Christmas dinner, said Stephanie Taber, the installation family readiness officer, who is running this year’s voucher program. The $50 vouchers for the base commissary were largely paid for by two designated collections by the chaplains and donations from the Quantico Officers’ Spouses’ Organization.
About 130 Quantico Marines got a Thanksgiving turkey dinner from the United Service Organizations’ Turkeys for Troops program, which operated out of the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Taber said the USO and the base worked together to ensure there was no duplication of services between the two programs. The Montford Point Marine Association also donated six vouchers for each of the two holidays.
“Throughout the holiday season, the Marines have been pretty well supported,” Taber said.
Most recipients are ranked sergeant or equivalent and below, although some are of higher rank but have special circumstances, such as a staff sergeant with seven children, she said.
Taber also worked with the base Logistics Division and Glengary Christmas Tree Farm to see to it that the families on the food voucher list had the opportunity to receive a free Christmas tree. The farm owner donated 120 trees, which Gunnery Sgt. Guy Saucedo, the Logistics Division’s operations chief, picked up with a crew of Marines.
“This is his way of giving back to service members and their families as much as he can,” Saucedo said, noting that the famer donated about 180 trees last year.
For those on duty during the holidays, the Single Marine Program provides Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners every year, and single Marines and sailors who stay aboard the installation during the holidays also receive gift bags.
“The commands let us know who’s going to be on duty during the holidays,” said Betty Mayfield, SMP coordinator for the base, adding that commanders also identify those who are financially unable to go home or don’t have anywhere to go.
All of these, whether single or not, are welcome to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, she said. Meals are delivered to those who are actually standing duty that evening, and others can come to the SMP house for dinner. Mayfield delivers many of those meals herself, and Marine Corps Community Services area coordinators deliver meals to Marines on duty at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.
“Some people will come and eat and hang out all day and watch sports with friends,” Mayfield said, noting that the SMP house is decorated for the holidays, complete with a Christmas tree, and as close to home as the Marines can find on the base.
This Thanksgiving, she said, 93 to-go meals were delivered and 35 ate at the house, lower numbers than usual. MCCS budgets enough food for 200, but Mayfield said the single Marines quickly finish off any extra food. “If we have leftovers, food never lasts long here.”
SMP delivers 200 to 300 gift bags each Christmas Eve to single Marines who are here for the holidays.
“We have Marines every year tell us that’s the only thing they got on Christmas,” Mayfield said.
She said the base exchange partners with vendors to donate the bags, which include around $100 worth of gifts, from snacks and candy to hygiene items and socks, to DVDs or CDs.
Many of the Marines who stay on base over the holidays are of junior rank, and for some, it may be their first holiday season away from home, she said. “We don’t want them to feel like they’re forgotten about or that nobody cares for them.”
In addition to the gift bags from the exchange, the Future Business Leaders of America at Culpeper County High School put together about 60 gift packages for Quantico service members who won’t be going home for the holidays.
Retired Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Allen Tanner, Marine instructor for the school’s junior ROTC program, delivered the packages to the SMP House on Dec. 6.
“Since I have ties to Marine Corps Base Quantico, we selected Quantico as the recipient,” Tanner said.
Cadets with his program come to the base to use combat simulators at Camp Upshur and to see the Modern Day Marine Expo, he said, adding that the base also provides drill instructors and noncommissioned officers to judge junior ROTC drill competitions.
He said the gift packages were a way to express gratitude for the Marines’ interest in and influence on the cadets in his program. “These young high school students are the future of our military,” Tanner said.
— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com