On Saturday, 14 November 2015, Gator 990 hosted the celebration of 240 years of the Marine Corps.  After a social gathering, over 200 guests took their places in the ballroom to watch the traditional ceremony, comments and awards, a USO Show featuring entertainment in the 60's theme, inspiring videos and dancing to the music of DJ Tibbs.

Pictured above is the cake cutting featuring our Guest of Honor, LtGen John W. Bergman, USMC (Ret), our oldest Marine Bob Gasche who is an Iwo Jima veteran born in 1924 and our youngest Marine Stephen Carlisle who was born in 1987.

About 40 items were out for the silent auction which raised valuable dollars for our missions of supporting the Young Marines and Marines in need.

Also recognized during the evening was our selection of Forest Hope as our 2015 Marine of the Year.  Forest has been instrumental in leading our detachment's efforts to help veterans in need and our missions in the community with honor guards and color guards.  His proactive approach has forged some alliances with businesses in the community that help us accomplish these missions.  We say thank you to him and job well done.

Guests attending the event came from Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, South Carolina, and locally from Chiefland, Trenton and Ocala, in addition to our guests from here in Alachua County.

Thank you to the people who made this a successful event.  Jim Yakubsin and Sandy Golden did a lot behind the scenes in preparation.  Sandra Torres-Pintos orchestrated the entire traditional ceremony and served as our emcee. Fred Judkins ran the video portions. "DJ Tibbs" ran the music for the evening. Ken Beasock donated many of the auction items. Forest Hope, Vernon Kisling, David Nettles, Martha Brown and others were instrumental in the planning of this event.

To see a collection of photos from the event, view our 2015 Birthday Ball Page.

Mark your calendars now: November 5, 2016, Best Western, 5pm, be there or be square.