About 50 Marines from Camp Pendleton are spending Thanksgiving with Orange County families thanks to a longtime tradition.
The Marines will be heading in pairs to about two dozen homes across O.C. But before heading to their host families, the Marines got a private tour of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, the first time it’s ever opened on Thanksgiving.
“It's awesome being here. I mean, otherwise we'd just be on base in the barracks,” one Marin told KNX News’ Nataly Tavidian. “We have to come out and see this awesome museum, hang out with these pretty cool families, and eat good food because we don't really get to go home because I mean you could, but some of us don't have enough money to get a plane ticket for Thanksgiving and then Christmas, so having the opportunity to come here and spend time with these people and just be around other civilians is really refreshing.”
One Marine said it was weird being away from his family, but he’s grateful for the host families.
“This has been such an incredible experience so far, and we're just getting started,” he said.
One of the host families said she’s been welcoming Marines for years.
“I think another thing about our house is that my daughter married a Marine and my son is a Marine, not active duty, but they are Marines that we host feel really at home because they're with their fellow Marines,” she said.
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Justin Rodenbeck is hosting two Marines at his home. He spoke with Nataly about what it means to host them this year.
“I mean, being that it's Thanksgiving, it's a way to say thank-you to these guys that don't have a place to go for today, to just get away for a little bit,” he said.
Villa Park Councilman Robert Frackleton helps organize this every year. He said it’s about giving Marine a nice Thanksgiving.
“So Thanksgiving is the first major holiday they get the day off,” he said. “They got nowhere to go. So we send limo buses down, we pick them up, we bring them back to the city of Villa Park, and dole them out to about 25 host families, and they get well fed, they watch football, they play video games, they jump in the jacuzzi. If you're not from California, to be able to tell your mom in Missouri or Wisconsin that you're swimming in a pool in California on Thanksgiving Day, it blows them away.”
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