Guitars for Grunts
started the day I decided
to send one of my guitars to my fellow Marines in Iraq.
Knowing
that many things had changed after Sept 11th, 2001, I knew I had to
send this guitar to specific person, and not just to any Marine unit
in Iraq.
While searching the internet I found a website
dedicated to Marines called
Togetherweserved.com". Upon
joining this great website, I felt right at home. And within an hour
of posting what I wanted to do, I was given the name
and the email address of a Marine SgtMajor at Camp
Fallujah.
After Contacting the SgtMajor and telling him
my plans to send the guitar, I packed up my Ovation Celebrity
andsent it on it's way. And about ten days later the guitar
arrived safely at Camp Fallujah.
A day or so later I
recieved an email from a Navy Chaplain at Camp Fallujah telling
me how my guitar was a blessing as their guitar had
recently been stolen from the base chapel.It didn't take long
for me to realize that this would be a great way to
support our troops and boost morale.
So I started
saving nickles, dime, and quarters, and found a local distributor
who agreed to sell me scratch and dent guitars for a
very generous price. Loaded with $75.00 I went to the
distributor's warehouse and purchased 7 guitars. All
of them needing work to make them playable
instruments.
I spent several hours on each guitar leveling
frets, and making adjustments so they played to
my standards. They may not have been beautiful perfect shape
high end instruments, but they played very well when I
was done.
Next I got the idea to have the Mayor of
Stow, Ohio the Honorable Karen Fritschell sign one of the
guitars, and then took the guitar to the City of Stow Safety
building
where both the Police and Fire Deptartments signed
the guitar.
That guitar was sent to a young
Marine in Iraq.
Ok, So people have asked me "Why send
guitars?", it's a very easy question to answer, "They
will help the troops relax, and give them something to do, and
make them feel like a little bit of home is right there with
them". | |
