Marine Parents was built on volunteer hours, time, dedication and support. Our mission is two-fold: provide support to Marines, military personnel, and their families and give people in communities across our great nation opportunities to support the troops. In eleven years of service, part two of our mission, with volunteers representing nearly every state, has logged more than 200,000 volunteer hours.

April 6-12, 2014 is National Volunteer Week. We want to take this time to thank each and every volunteer who works for MarineParents.com for their dedication to our military and their families. Their service for our great nation is paramount to the success of our troops both stateside and abroad, and to the emotional well-being of their family members at home. I know those of you reading understand very well how important our volunteers' work is.    

To each of our volunteers, thank you for your work and dedication to the organization, our military and their families. And congratulations for a job well-done!

God Bless and Semper Fi,

It's known by many names--The Stars and Stripes. The Star Spangled Banner. Old Glory.

It symbolizes many ideals we hold dear--Democracy. Liberty. Freedom.

It's been there for some of the defining moments in American history--In 1814 when the sight of it flying over Fort McHenry inspired Francis Scott Key to write our national anthem. In 1945 when five Marines and a Navy corpsman raised it on Mt. Suribachi and gave hope to a nation. On 9/11 when three members of the New York Fire Department raised it in the rubble of the World Trade Center and showed the world that while it may bend, America never breaks.

It's the American flag, and while the way it looks and the number of states it represents may have changed over the years, the fact that, for as long as we've been a country, men and women have been willing to put their lives on the line, fighting and dying to protect it and all that it stands for, has not.

Since 2001, that has meant sending hundreds of thousands of service members, many of them barely out of high school, to Iraq and Afghanistan. In the almost 13 years since the first American troops entered the country, thousands of troops have lost their lives. Thousands more have lost brothers in arms, body parts, their innocence, or some combination thereof. Thousands of parents, brothers, sister, husbands, wives, and children have had their worlds shattered and lives turned upside down.  

It appears that's about to change.

Unless something drastic happens, by the end of 2014 all American troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan, and the longest military conflict in our country's history will finally come to an end.

To commemorate this historic moment, we'd like to offer Marine supporters the opportunity to purchase an American flag to send to Afghanistan at our April 26 Care Package Project pack day in honor of Military Appreciation Month in May.

The idea is simple-we pack and ship 500 American flags to 500 deployed Marines on our next pack day so those Marines are able to fly their flag over their last base in Afghanistan before this tour of duty ends.

However, to make this happen, we need your help. Each flag is $30 (although that does cover the cost of the flag and the shipping fee to send it to Afghanistan), so to provide 500 flags for 500 Marines, we need the Marine Parents family to come together to raise $15,000 by Friday, April 25.  

By purchasing a flag, not only are you providing a Marine with a piece of history, you're also providing a potential heirloom to pass down for generations, something each Marine will be able tell his or her children and grandchildren about.  

Don't miss your chance to be a part of this historic moment, provide a Marine with a memory that will last a lifetime! Order a flag today!

Click here to purchase a flag today! 

Having a loved one in the Marine Corps can be a challenging experience. From highs--such as pride, admiration, and a sense of belonging--to lows--such as anxiety, fear, and loneliness--each day, and sometimes each hour, brings with it a unique set of emotions that your "civilian" friends just do not and cannot relate to.

Marine Family Network's (MFN) live chat room is just such a place. 

MFN's live chat allows you to chat, in real time, with other Marine family members, friends, and supporters from around the country. Through good times and bad, the people you meet on MFN will be there to provide you with support, understanding, compassion, and a friendly ear. "I'm no less frightened, but a lot less alone" is a sentiment shared by many MFN users.  

So remember, you are not alone. MFN is like your front porch to come and sit with a warm blanket to talk with your Marine family: a Place to Connect & Share®.   

Click here to join MFN today! 

Jon Hicks (left) and David Tapper (right)

David Tapper, a 13-year Navy SEAL veteran, was in Afghanistan conducting operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom when he died on August 20, 2003. Jon Hicks, an infantry assaultman with the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, was deployed to Ashraf, Iraq in Anbar Providence when died on September 10, 2007.

To honor and remember these two brave men, the Waterford Township War Memorial Committee is holding a 5K Freedom Run/Walk on April 26 at American Legion post 311 in Atco, New Jersey. Money raised at the event will be used for their respective scholarship funds as well as for The Waterford Township War Memorial Committee.   

For more information, or to register for the 5K, please click here...