Active Duty

Caleb Eames will run for charity.

Dear Family, Friends and Co-workers:  
January 9th and 10th 2010 will be very special days for me and a little guy named Austin in Tennessee.

I am going to be running the Disney Goofy Race and a Half Challenge in Orlando, Florida as part of Team ASK (Athletes for Special Kids). For the Goofy Race and a Half Challenge, I’ll have to run a Half Marathon (13.1 miles) on Saturday, and then a Full Marathon (26.2 miles) on Sunday, for a total of 39.3 miles in two days.

I’m not running this just because I’m crazy. I’ve been training for and will complete this run to gain financial support for Special Kids.

Special Kids is a not-for-profit Christian organization located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee that provides speech, physical, occupational, and recreation therapy and skilled-nursing for children with special needs. The services at Special Kids are offered to all participants regardless of the ability to pay. This is why children like Austin need our help.

Here is Austin’s story:

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SSgt. Luis Agostini of Haverstraw, a combat correspondent for the Marines, recently was deployed to Afghanistan and is writing about his experiences for The Journal News and LoHud.com.

by SSgt Luis Agostini, LoHud.com
I thought I’d be heading back to my home camp without really getting outside of the wire and into the Afghanistan that I pictured, that I had been preparing for so long. I wouldn’t be in danger, for that day at least, but I wanted to get out again.

In the meantime, the Marine I am supervising, combat correspondent Cpl. Zachary Nola, was getting ready to cover a memorial for a Marine who was killed a few days earlier.

The Marine was from the San Antonio area, where my wife is stationed. The thought of me getting hurt out here never really crossed her mind until then. She said it kind of shook her a little.

The Marines with India Company, 3/4, had told me to come back after a few days, since they had some work to do on their vehicles.

I returned to their command operations center Sunday evening, Nov. 1, and the platoon sergeant, SSgt. Paul Cooke, said they had a mission lined up the following morning in which, because of the route’s propensity to get hit by roadside bombs and indirect fire (mortar/rocket attacks), they were going to engage the Taliban.

And he wanted me there to cover it. I was more than happy to do it.

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Combat correspondents currently deployed with RCT-7 in Afghanistan: LCpl. Walter Marino, SSgt. Luis Agostini and LCpl. Dwight Henderson. Let’s remember all of our CCs, where ever they are, this Thanksgiving.

From the Headquarters Marine Corps Ball held Nov. 14, 2009 are Fallujah ’06 veterans and their wives: Colonel Bryan and Tracey Salas, Major Shawn and Monique Turner, and LtCol Riccoh and Shelly Player. Col Salas is currently serving as the director of Public Affairs, Maj Turner serves on the Asia-Pacific Read more…